Jerusalem – Israeli airline El Al says it does not have a policy in place for handling issues such as the Sept. 28 flight from New York to Israel, where ultra-Orthodox men disrupted a flight because they refused to sit next to women.
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Haaretz (http://bit.ly/YOI3aV) reports the airline also stated it does not have plans to put a policy in place in the future, as it deals with requests on a case-by-case basis.
VIN News previously reported (http://bit.ly/1vsXSij) that a flight was disrupted on Sept. 28 when hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men refused to sit next to women on a flight to Israel, delaying takeoff. They did sit down, but then blocked the aisles once the flight took off.
A petition was filed on Sunday by Sharon Shapiro of Change.org requesting that El Al keep female passengers safe from harassment during flights.
Shapiro wrote that El Al permits, “female passengers to be bullied, harassed, and intimidated into switching seats which they rightfully paid for and were assigned to.” As of Tuesday, more than 1200 people signed the petition.
El Al had no comment, except to say that they deal with complaints individually.
Information taken from Haaretz
chevra need to respect other passeners…i personally dont take elal for the noise that goes on…
Enough already . I say this to the readers that will fill the pot with halachik proclamations or champion social niceties AND to the esteemed editors that knowingly stir the pot .
Why not throw in a metzitza b`peh article too.
Its just not right and completely unnecessary. ……….unless you want to cause machlokes.
At this time of year such an article should be flagged as innapropriate.
this is insane There are always some crazies, but I have been on may EL AL flights and there are plenty of Charadim who sit next to women and don’t make a scene. We all just need to get along and mutually respect one another!!!remember respect goes 2 ways The chilonim need to respect charadim also
That looks happy looking at that magazine.
Oy vey! The only solution is for these people to charter their own flights. Taking one look at this photo is enough for anyone to give up flying.
Generally speaking americans are well behaved.The super frum think that they are entitled to control everyone’s living style.
Suggestion: Set up separate charters or blocked areas on flights which offer this option for extra charge
To accommodate religious needs.
I believe those who care about this will pay extra for this option which could be on certain flights only.
As someone who flew on a different ElAl flight Motzai Shabbos I would just say these people should weigh the grave issur of Chilul Hashem vs. a chumra of sitting next to a woman. I also want to comment I fly many times on El Al I find they try to be accommodating if someone requests a seat change as I saw on my flight, but in the end you can’t force a passenger to change their seat. This problem also extends to davening in the aisles. I usually daven sitting down as per instruction of many gedolim. On my flight last Tuesday going to EY. in my section there almost all ‘Haimishe” So someone when someone made a minyon marriv I did stand. Right before SE the fasten seat belt light went on (in this case I think it went on just so we should sit down) After a few announcements for everyone to sit down, which everyone ignored, a stewardess went up the aisles saying “Ze pikuach nefessh”. At that point I felt our standing was becoming a chillul hashem which I don’t think is better then sitting by SE so I sat down.
EL AL is a mostly rude and anti frum airline yet they aren’t stupid to go head to head against the frum people as they know up to 40% of the NY-TLV (the most lucartive) line is frum.
Their policy has always been to suck out the most $ yet harrass the frum in a subtle way by never designating a time and place to daven and when people try to daven always put on the seatbelt sign.
They never try to help people change seat so the the frum could sit according to their gender seprate traditions.
Why can’t the have an optional frum section in the back same way it used to be a smokers section?
I once traveld with United and was shocked when a (non jewish) Stewerd told “let us know when u want to pray and well clear out the kitchen for u ” I never heard that on El Al.
Maybe we should start a boycott an hit them where it hurts mo$t.
Maybe those wacko’s should take the initiative by arranging to sit next to others of their choosing in advance of the flight, instead of making a Chillul Hashem.
An overwhelming majority of Chareidim don’t behave that way. I have seen men politely ask someone in they can change seats with them. Most make no issue of it. It’s always the crazies that get the publicity.
Was it these people who last year were sealing themselves in baggies in case the plane flies over a cemetery?
You guys are correct regrading EL-AL’s lack of accomodoations for davening. However, I think you would run into alot of legal probelms and lawsuits if ELAL were to set aside a segragated area for charedim. That is just the way of the world.
i for one dont care if i sit next to a male or female. i thank Hashem when i land safely ….thats all that counts
Whoever wants to ensure that he only sits next to someone of the same gender can pay for two seats. A chassidish friend of mine recently faced this issue and he immediately forked over additional monies (more than a thousand dollars) to upgrade to First Class. Now, that’s a first class response.
Also, standing in the aisles for davening purposes has long ago been prohibited by respected Rabbonim. I stopped standing as soon as the Psak came out. Not looking to a frummie on someone else’s cheshbon.
When you book seats before you don’t know who you will sit with untill you get on the plane.