freethinker | The problem began when a group of Haredi men bound for Israel last Wednesday to celebrate the Jewish New Year refused to sit next to female passengers on the plane.
Why they were on the plane to begin with is a bit of a mystery, because Orthodox Jews were specifically told in 2009 to boycott El Al. Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf said they should fly with airlines that only screen:
Movies showing water and scenery, and not dirty movies.
But back to last week’s flight, described by one passenger as:
An 11-hour nightmare.
First the flight was delayed because The Men in Black refused to be
seated next to females. Regular passengers claimed that hundreds of the
ultra-Orthodox men demanded that they trade places with them before
takeoff, saying they could not possibly sit next to women.
Their behaviour not only delayed the flight, but caused actual chaos.
Said one passenger, Amit Ben-Natan, who snapped the picture (inset)
above:
People stood in the aisles and refused to go forward. Although everyone had tickets with seat numbers that they purchased in advance, they asked us to trade seats with them, and even offered to pay money, since they cannot sit next to a woman. It was obvious that the plane wouldn’t take off as long as they kept standing in the aisles.
Passengers claimed that though the El Al flight crew informed them
they did not have to agree to a switch, the flight’s captain said over
the PA system that the flight would not take off as long as people were
standing.
