Airline moves women from ultra-Orthodox men – again

LONDON – One of Israel's largest technology companies announced the boycott of the national airline El Al, after it had again displaced female customers of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men despite a judicial decision against this practice.

Barak Eilam, CEO of the Raanana-based software company, NICE Systems, said his company would not travel with the Israeli flag bearer until he changed his "practice and actions that discriminate against women."

"At NICE, we do not do business with companies that discriminate against race, sex or religion," he wrote on LinkedIn.

It comes after a passenger on New York's JFK-Tel-Aviv flight from El Al on Friday night saw four ultra-Orthodox men refuse to take their assigned seats because they were next door. of women.

The witness, Khen Rotem, posted on Facebook that the departure of the plane had been delayed while the male flight attendants first tried to force the men to sit down and then asked women to move until the problem is solved.

One of the men was so pious that he boarded the plane with his eyes closed in an apparent effort to avoid looking at a woman on board, Rotem said.

While flight attendants were busy "putting the personal practice of faith before individual rights and the civilian order", the flight failed to take off and departed with a quarter of an hour late, wrote Rotem.

The alleged incident took place almost a year to the day after a landmark decision by an Israeli court that airline employees can not ask passengers to move seats to accommodate men.

The case was brought against El Al by Renee Rabinowitz, 82, who fled the Nazis during the Second World War and who was asked to relocate seats on a flight from Newark, New Jersey to Tel Aviv in 2015 .

The Magistrates Court of Jerusalem ordered El Al to set up a procedure for similar events in the future and Rabinowitz the equivalent of $ 1,834 in damages.

El Al did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News, but in a statement released Sunday by the Associated Press, he apologized and said that he was doing everything its possible to serve "a wide range of populations and travelers".

The Israel Religious Action Center, a progressive group that led the issue last year, was also unavailable for comment, but asked passengers to report any similar cases. "If you have been a witness or victim of illegal sexual segregation, report the incident to us and we will act," he said on Facebook.

NICE Systems employs 4,900 people worldwide. Haaretz reported on Tuesday that any boycott could be a serious problem for El Al, for whom ultra-Orthodox travelers and high-tech companies are important customers.