An Israeli Court has ordered Israeli Airline El Al to compensate two brothers, Palestinian citizens of Israel from the village of Iksal in the Galilee, for humiliating treatment during a security check.
Two brothers were returning from a trip to the USA on an Israir flight from New York. After an unremarkable security check, they were informed they would be ‘escorted’ by a member of El Al security personnel until they boarded the plane.
The brothers were ‘escorted’ in this manner for a protracted period due to a delay in takeoff. When one brother moved aside to use his phone and go to the toilet the security escort scolded him and told him he was not allowed to lose eye contact with her. When he responded angrily, her superior officer demanded an apology as a condition for boarding the aircraft. He was only allowed to board the plane after apologizing.
In the course of the trial El Al admitted that the appellants had posed no security threat and that the security screening had not raised any suspicions of risk.
According to the Haifa Court spokesperson, El Al was asked to pay the brothers 36,000 NIS (GBP 6,000) as compensation.
In his ruling, Judge Amir Toubi defined El Al’s conduct as discriminatory and disrespectful, and clarified that legitimate security procedures did not include escorting or monitoring passengers after the security check had ended. He added that the demand for an apology as a condition for boarding the plane constituted harassment and abuse of authority.
Racial profiling and increasing restrictions at Ben Gurion Airport
The ruling is a rare and welcome development against a backdrop of escalating violations of human rights at Ben Gurion airport.
Israeli airport security personnel have often been accusedby rights groups of discrimination based on racial profiling against Palestinian passengers. There has been a spate of publicand legal campaigns against the practice in recent years.
More recently, Israeli immigration authorities have stepped up their own measures to restrict entry of various groups into Israel, by questioning and sometimes deporting visitors to the country directly from Ben Gurion airport.
Israeli reporter Amira Hass described two such cases in the first week of April alone. In one, Israeli authorities deported three Swedish citizens, members of a coexistence education group for Jewish and Palestinian Swedes who were visiting Israel as part of an initiative funded by a leading Swedish charity.
In a separate incident, three US citizens of Ethiopian and Eritrean origin were put on a plane back to America after one of them said they intended to visit an unrecognized asylum seeker during their visit to Israel. The main aim of their visit was a Christian pilgrimage to religious sites in the country.
In a sharply worded editorial, the second on the subject this month, Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz bitterly criticized these escalating policies.
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