Jerusalem – El Al has issued a clarification stating that it never laid blame for the incidents during now infamous flight 002 from New York to Tel Aviv on either charedi passengers on board the plane.
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Despite this claim, the fist statement issued on behalf of El Al after the incident claimed specifically that “a group of haredim… used heavy and violent pressure against the [flight] staff,” in seeking to disembark from the plane before it took off.
In El Al’s “clarification” released on Monday morning, the airline said that “similar to the clarification on November 19, the company did not place blame on the secular, religious or haredi communities for the reported events.”
“Any statement to the contrary was not done with the knowledge of El AL,” adding that “El Al does not distinguish between its customers on the basis of sector, gender, or nationality,” continued the airline.
The statement said that “the El Al management supports and appreciates the flight and ground crews who worked on this flight in an admirable manner.”
The airline said it would be compensating all 400 passengers on board the flight a free return flight to a European destination due to the “discomfort caused to the company’s customers.”
Almost as soon as El Al issued its statement, Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, an influential haredi leader who was aboard flight 002, negotiated with the airline’s management after the incident and who called for a boycott of El Al only yesterday afternoon, was pictured boarding an El Al flight to New York on Monday morning.
Sorotzkin and several others went to Ben Gurion on Sunday afternoon to cut up their platinum frequent flier cards and declare a haredi boycott of the airline.
It appears that Sorotzkin was aware the clarification was pending, and that it would suffice his demands, given the fact that less than 24 hours after he declared a boycott to the media he has boarded a new El Al flight.
A spokesman for the rabbi did not respond to a request for comment.
The boycott should continue for at least one month; when El Al is hit in the pocketbook, they will be begging the Chareidim, and the Chassidim for future business! Many of their secular staff hates religious Jews, and contrary to their statement, they do distinguish between secular and religious Jews. They treat the secular ones much better. They are nothing, but hypocrites; it is no wonder that many travelers to EY prefer to take other airlines, where they are treated with kovod.
How much did El Al pay Sorotzkin to quiet him down?
It seems when the wallet gets pinched some truth gets squeezed out?
Whatever the story ends up being it should be clear that a Orthodox jew has NO business flying Thursday afternoon to any overseas destination . Its been the ruling of many Moyreh harues . Also driving up to the mountains 3 hours before shabbos must be avoided. And this is more relevant in the winter months when the Friday is short and Newark and JFK airports experience the most delays.
“a free return flight to Europe”? What a joke!
Hmmm….The influential chareidi rabbi ripped up his matmid card on sunday, called for a boycott of el al, and boarded an el al flight to ny on monday.
How did el al view his ripped up matmid card.
Maybe he meant he is boycotting his card but obviously not the airline if he boarded the nrxt morning. Very confusing indeed
The whole thing smacks of egotism and nothing else.
The “boycott” called by Rabbi Sorotzkin was ‘only until ELAL apologizes’.
If they were flying with any other Airline (like they would if they did boycott Elal), then they wold not have stopped in Athens and not given any choice in the matter.
To #5 - Don’t blame the victims in this case; the frum Yidden had no way of knowing that a storm in the NYC area, would disrupt their flight schedule over the Atlantic. They are not meteorologists! Yes, flying on Friday should be avoided, but not on Thursday.
El Al hates Orthodox Jews.Lets take our business elsewhere.
Other airlines dont discriminate.