Arab Israeli Women Sue El Al Over Profiling And Strip Searches
Three Arab Israeli students are suing El Al and Israel Arkia Airlines after the group said they were subject to extra screening and invasive searches due to their ethnicity as they tried to board a flight for Tel Aviv.
The women have sought $100,000 in damages in Israeli court after the incident in October, when they were boarding a flight from Belgrade, Serbia back to Tel Aviv – El Al was responsible for security and Arkia organized the tour of Serbia that they were on.
According to the suit, the women were forced to undress and submit to a cell phone search because of their race. The women also said that they were not to able recover their luggage for almost two weeks.
“This was a search meant to humiliate – both because we are Arab and also because we are women. I heard the security officer say explicitly that if we don’t undress, we won’t get on flight,” one of the women told Haaretz.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO