Orthodox Men Refuse To Sit Beside Women On Plane, Airline Switches Seats

An Israeli airline flight from New York to Tel Aviv, Israel, was delayed at John F. Kennedy International Airport by at least an hour when four men refused to be seated next to women last week.

Khen Rotem, one of the passengers who was on El Al flight 002, recounted the incident in a Facebook post on Friday, describing the confusion that ensued after the group of ultra-orthodox men got on to the plane.

Their continued refusal to be seated next to female co-passengers was made worse when the flight attendants intervened to try and solve the issue. Since the attendants were women too, the two men refused to interact with them.

“The crew tries to solve the problem. This doesn’t work. The female flight attendants clear space for the authoritative men on board… the ultra-Orthodox are not ready to speak with, or even look at the female flight attendants,” wrote Rotem.

“All the men in the crew, except for the captain, are now only dealing with this instead of preparing for takeoff and serving the passengers. The ultra-Orthodox don’t blink. One of the crew members threatens: ‘If you don’t sit down, you can get off the plane right now,'” he added.

After the threat and a prolonged argument, the crew agreed to the men’s demand as it was holding up all the other passengers and leading to a waste of time. However, instead of making the men switch their seats, the airline crew began a “long diplomatic process of moving female passengers from their places.”

Finally, an elderly American women and a young Israeli woman agreed to switch seats, and the flight took off.

Rotem said that one of the men seemed to be “particularly devout”, as he kept his eyes shut from the time he set foot on the plane and kept them closed during the entire length of the flight so as to not even look at the women seated inside the plane.

Remarking that 12 flights of other airline companies had pulled ahead of El Al flight as the crew dealt with “practical theology and personal belief against individual rights and civil order,” Rotem wondered whether making special accommodations for orthodox passengers was a policy of the Israeli airline.

“Can any traveler demand — and receive — moving other passengers from their places for their personal well-being and in accordance with their beliefs. Or is this a privilege reserved only for a segment of travelers,” he wrote.

El AI apologized for the incident and issued the following statement, providing an explanation for their crew’s action:

"Any discrimination against passengers is absolutely forbidden. El Al flight attendants do all they can in order to provide service to a wide variety of passengers with different and diverse requests and try to assist to the best of their ability. All this in order to take off on time and bring the passengers to their destination on schedule.”

The incident comes a year after a female passenger sued El Al for being forced to change her seat for a similar reason. The Israeli court ruled at the time that asking a passenger to move seat based on gender is a form of discrimination, the Times of Israel reported.