El Al says it never blamed haredim on infamous flight, offers free trips
El Al has issued a clarification stating that it never laid blame for the incidents on haredi or other passengers on board, during the now infamous flight 002 from New York to Tel Aviv.
Despite this claim, the fist statement issued on behalf of El Al 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 new statement, which was 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,” and added that “El Al does not distinguish between its customers on the basis of sector, gender, or nationality.”
It continued to say 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 with 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 this statement, Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, an influential haredi leader who was aboard flight 002, negotiated with the airline’s management after the incident and called for a boycott of El Al yesterday, was pictured boarding an El Al flight to New York from Tel Aviv on Monday morning.
Sorotzkin and several others went to Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday afternoon to cut up their platinum frequent flier cards and declare a haredi boycott of the airline.
Sorotzkin may have been aware that the clarification was pending, and would suffice his demands, since less than 24 hours after declaring a boycott he boarded a new El Al flight.
A spokesman for the rabbi did not respond to a request for comment.