26 June, 2018

El Al facing a boycott for discrimination against women

The Israeli airline El Al is facing fresh boycott calls this week over making woman passengers move in favour of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, despite court orders against the policy.

The latest calls for action against El Al comes after reports started circulating from a passenger on a New York JFK - Tel Aviv El Al flight on Friday. where four ultra-Orthodox men refused to take their assigned seats because they happened to be next to women.

Khen Rotem, used social media to document the incident that saw the men create such a fuss and disturbance, the aircraft missed its slot time and was delayed by more than an hour. 

According to Khem, one of the men was so religious, he boarded the flight with his eyes closed to avoid even looking at women. The men refused to speak with female flight attendants, only conversing with the male staff members.   The flight attendants were busy “putting personal practice of faith ahead of individual rights and civil order,” Rotem wrote on social media, causing the flight to be delayed. 

The crew then moved female passengers away so the men could take their seats and the flight continue to its destination. The events come almost exactly a year after the airline was told by a court in Israel that airline employees cannot ask female passengers to move seats to accommodate men. 

As a result of the news, a major technology company has announced its boycott of  El Al, Barak Eilam, CEO of NICE Systems, confirmed his company would not fly with the Israeli flag-carrier until it changed its “practice and actions discriminating (of), women. - At NICE we don't do business with companies that discriminate against race, gender or religion,"

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