Now that a major Israeli tech company has boycotted El Al — “We don’t do business with companies that discriminate.” — the airline has released a statement that they will do things differently. They won’t hold up their flights for hours as they negotiate with ultra orthodox men who refuse to sit next to women. In fact, “from now on, a passenger who refuses to sit next to another passenger will be immediately removed from the flight.”
To which UD says, take a look at Israel’s national education mandate. The same ultra orthodox refuse to follow it, and Israel lets them refuse to follow it, but the country still refers to its national education mandate. So El Al can make all the announcements it wants, but they’re as scared of the ultra orthodox as everyone else in Israel, and will in practice continue to give in to their disgusting behavior on their planes.
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Why? Put yourself on the plane, okay? Twenty ultra orthodox men – in collective protest against one of their group having been seated next to a woman – are standing in the middle aisle and refusing to sit down. A couple of them have wrapped cellophane all over their bodies because the plane will be flying over cemeteries.
Everyone else on the plane, as it sits forever on the tarmac, is creeped out and angry.
“Okay, new policy!” says a steward. “The guy refusing to sit next to a woman will now be immediately removed from the flight.”
Screaming ensues from the men in the aisle, who continue to refuse to move.
What’s El Al’s policy on passengers who refuse to sit down? Do you think they’re going to make all of these guys get off the plane?
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The problem in Israel, and on its planes, is that the ultra orthodox can be violent. Hardliners among them are pretty routinely violent. I don’t think El Al wants pitched battles on its planes. I don’t think it wants the interiors of its planes trashed.
There will be more and more boycotts until – you knew this was coming – El Al lays on ultra orthodox only planes.
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We have followed the El Al situation on this blog for a long time. Just put El Al Israel in my search engine.
September 3rd, 2018 at 7:48PM
UD, you know full well these guys are such highly productive employees that their bosses will take them aside and have a heart to heart. They’ll realize that all this yaba yaba is extraordinarily bad publicity and impacts the bottom line. Knowing that wilthout meaningful employment, they and their broods couldn’t possibly survive in such an expensive country. When faced with reality, they’ll be chastised and come to their senses.
Oh, wait….