Remember Renee Rabinowitz, who sued El Al for sexism, in asking her to move simply because a man, her Orthdox seatmate, didn't want to sit next to her? She won.
Back in December 2015, Ms. Rabinowitz, a then 81-year old retired lawyer, boarded her El Al flight 028 from Newark to Tel Aviv and took her aisle seat in Business Class. But when her seatmate showed up, an Orthodox Jewish man, he spoke with the flight attendant, who subsequently asked Ms. Rabinowitz to move to a “better seat” although it was just another seat in business class, and not better than her existing seat.
After asking the flight attendant whether the request to move was from her seatmate not wanting to sit next to her, the flight attendant admitted it was. Ms. Rabinowitz was frustrated by the fact that the flight attendant deliberately tried to mislead her, claiming it was a better seat: “The flight attendant treated me as if I was stupid,” she said, “but that’s a common problem in Israel if you don’t speak Hebrew.”
Not relishing sitting next to a man for 11 hours who so clearly didn't want to sit next to her, she gave up her preferred seat and moved to the one urged on her by the flight attendant.
Ms. Rabinowitz, while insulted, hadn't planned to sue El Al, but Anat Hoffman of the Israel Religious Centre (IRAC), a human rights organization, convinced her to take her grievance to court, to prevent other women from being similarly humiliated and discriminatd against.
In court, El Al's lawyers denied discrimating against women, countering that its reseating policies applied equally to men (although quick question: how many women ask an unrelated male seatmate to be reseated?) El Al also claimed that the principle of taking religious beliefs into account has been recognized by Israeli courts.
But the judge, Dana Cohen-Lekah, disagreed with El Al, declaring the practice of asking women to move seats to accommodate an ultra-orthodox man “discriminatory” and stating that “under absolutely no circumstances can a crew member ask a passenger to move from their designated seat because the adjacent passenger doesn’t want to sit next to them due to their gender”.
The judge also noted that such a policy violates Israeli discrimination law relating to products and services.
The ruling gives El Al 45 days to change its policies and 6 months to train its staff that it may not ask a passenger to change her seat on the request of another passenger, based on gender.
But El Al isn't the only one afflicted–similar incidents have been reported on other carriers, from easyJet to Delta to United, which have been disrupted or delayed when Orthodox Jewish men have refused to sit next to women.
Have you been on a flight that was delayed or disrupted due to someone's request for a seatmate to change seats, solely based on the person's gender?
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HT: NYT
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