A young transgender woman from the north of Israel was attacked on Friday at a cafe in Kiryat Haim. According to her it was because of transphobia. She was cut on her face by a broken bottle and needed stitches. Zevulun police have opened an investigation and at the initial phase it was estimated that the fight occurred because of the Eurovision Song Contest. This was denied by the young woman and her friend, considering the fact that the incident occurred at 4:30 am, hours after the Eurovision broadcast was over.

The incident took place in a cafe on Sderot Achi Eilat in Kiryat Haim near Haifa, at the entertainment center in the region. The young woman who was attacked, 23-year-old MTF transgender Tamira Brin, was sitting with her friend, Ronnie, who’s also transgender.

“We were in a club and then Ronnie and I went to a coffee shop,” said Brin. “Immediately after we were seated, two women and two men sitting in the cafe next to us began to make derogatory comments. At some point, one of them said to Ronnie, ‘Shut up tranny,’ and got up as if threatening to fight.”

Brin also said: “Suddenly they started throwing things at us, chairs, tables and bottles. We started throwing back and at some point one of the people sitting there hit me in the face with a broken bottle and cut me below the eye”.

Ronnie said that the verbal assault toward her was when she called for the waitress, and another girl in the coffee shop told her to shut up and cursed her about her sexual orientation. “I didn’t shut up and that started the whole mess. The background to this conflict, unequivocally, was hatred toward transgenders and transvestites,” said Ronnie, in pain.

Brin was taken by ambulance to Rambam Hospital, where she stayed overnight while the wounds were stitched. She added that she had never experienced physical violence in her life and didn’t have problems with her appearance or her sexual identity.

The police said that the incident is still under investigation, but they claim that it’s currently unknown whether the event began on the basis of gender. The police also claimed that the incident took place during the Eurovision semi-finals, when in reality the Eurovision contest ended more than four hours before the incident. The police also referred to Breen as “a young man.”

“This is the first time something like this has happened to me,” says Brin. “No one has ever raised a hand to me and I’m still in shock. Just this afternoon I was released from the hospital. I needed three stitches. I’m a woman whose aesthetics is so important to her. I am a beautiful girl and hope that they didn’t destroy my face in this horrible incident.”