A resolution expressing “shock and dismay at the unprecedented act of anti-Jewish hatred displayed by El Al employes last Thursday at the Ben Gurion airport terminal in Israel” was adopted at a combined emergency conference in New York held today of the Leadership Council of the American executive of the Agudath Israel World Organization and of Agudath Israel of America.
The meeting was called and chaired by the president of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, who is also chairman of the Agudath Israel World Organization, in reaction to the incident at Ben Gurion airport last week when El Al employes selectively barred Agudat Israel members from entering the terminal to embark on their overseas flights.
The El Al employes acted out of anger at the agreement that the Agudat party in Israel made with the Israel government to cease all flights on the Sabbath and religious holidays beginning September I. The Agudist leadership conference labeled the action of the El Al employes “an outrageous anti-Jewish act which, had it transpired at any other airport in the world, would have triggered instant protest demonstrations by Jews of all persuasions.”
The Agudath Israel resolution continued: “What is painfully grievous to the Jewish soul is that the ugly scene at Ben Gurion airport last week, in the midst of a costly war, was a brazen demonstration of defiance against a basic pillar of Judaism — observance of Shabbos — which is no less meaningful to the security and survival of Israel than tanks and artillery.”
The conference sent a letter to Israel’s Transportation Minister Chaim Corfu and to Tourism Minister Yosef Sharir demanding that the government take “immediate punative action” against those “guilty of perpetrating this shameless discriminatory act arbitrarily selecting Orthodox Jewish passengers” and to make certain that such discriminatory acts should not be repeated.
Agudath Israel of America also instructed its staff counsel to consider legal action on behalf of the American members of Agudath Israel who were prevented, through the “illegal use of force by El Al employes from realizing the full value of the flight tickets they had purchased, which includes unhindered access to the airport of departure.”
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