An Israeli diplomatic official said he was thrown out of an Uber ride in Chicago Thursday night for speaking Hebrew, WBBM reported.
Itay Milner, Deputy Consul General of Israel to the Midwest, said he was 10 minutes into his Uber ride when he told to exit the vehicle by the driver.
On Facebook, Milner said he was told to leave the car because he answered his telephone in Hebrew.
“I just had the worst experience of my life. I was just thrown out of an Uber because I was speaking my mother tongue,” Milner wrote. “Ten minutes into my ride with no prior interaction between me and the driver, the driver started yelling ‘Get out of my car!’ All because I answered the phone in Hebrew.
“I am not easily intimidated, but I was scared.”
A statement released by an Uber spokeswoman said that the ride sharing company “does not tolerate any form of discrimination.”
“We are reaching out to the rider to extend our support for the experience he described here,” the spokeswoman wrote. “As soon as we were made aware of this, we removed the driver’s access from the app as we look further into this.”
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