Shay Zanco in a video advertisement for Factory 54. Photo: YouTube screenshot
Israeli plus size model Shay Zanco said she was “really humiliated” after a hotel in Egypt asked her to leave immediately after it discovered her nationality, she told the Israeli news outlet Walla.
“In the four years I’ve been [in the spotlight], I’ve never felt antisemitism or a problem because I’m Jewish and Israeli,” added the 21-year-old model and lingerie designer, who has been featured in Vogue magazine and was included in Forbes Israel‘s “30 Under 30” list this year. “This time it was something different,” she added. “I left the hotel straight to the airport and caught the only flight there [which] was to Paris, even though I had a photo shoot in Barcelona.”
Zanco has been featured in campaigns for Victoria’s Secret, ASOS, and Beyonce’s Adidas x IVY PARK brand, to name a few. She lives between Tel Aviv and London and explained in a TikTok video on July 18 that she was invited by rapper Travis Scott and his entourage to accompany them as they travel to Egypt for the rapper’s concert on July 28 at the Pyramids of Giza. The model applied for a visa to travel to Egypt and her request was at first denied. Shortly after, Scott’s performance was canceled, Zanco said in the video.
She still traveled to Egypt, somehow obtaining a travel visa, and decided to visit tourist sites in the country like the Pyramids of Giza, which she took a photo with and later posted on Instagram. According to Walla, the day after her hotel in Egypt discovered that Zanco was Israeli and staying at the hotel without Scott’s team, she was asked to leave the premises immediately. Zanco’s two Instagram posts from Egypt have also been bombarded with comments by social media users who told the model to “stay out” of the country, “you’re not welcome here,” ” apartheid isn’t welcome” and messages that say “Free Palestine.”
Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979 and enjoy some diplomatic relations but ties between the Jewish state and the Muslim-majority country have remained frosty over the years.
An official from Egypt’s Chamber of Hotel Establishments told local media there are no rules implemented by the Ministry of Tourism or any Egyptian authority preventing any nationality from entering hotels in Egypt, and said the hotel that kicked out Zanco would be punished for doing so, Al Arabiya News reported.
