Last month Asean Now was reporting on a Thai business owner on Kho Samui getting hammered online for displaying a Palestinian liberation flag in front of his shop. Now, we have a Thai park owner who decides to bar an Israeli family. Both events driven by private sentiment, not government instruction! But, what they do highlight is the gap between Thailand’s formal stance: non‑aligned, tourism‑friendly, and publicly neutral, and the way ordinary Thais sometimes project global conflicts into local behaviour. While the state doesn’t push discrimination, it also isn’t quick to intervene when private actors or netizens escalate things like this.
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