Lufthansa accused of banning all visibly Jewish passengers from boarding flight, in a move reminiscent of Kuwait Airways' racist policy
We at The Lawfare Project are profoundly disturbed by recent reporting that approximately 100 visibly Jewish passengers — and only visibly Jewish passengers — were singled out and denied boarding on a Lufthansa connecting flight last week, after someOrthodox Jews and some non-Jews allegedly failed to comply with the airline’s COVID-19 mask requirement on the flight’s first leg. When the Jewish passengers deplaned at Germany’s Frankfurt Airport, they were met at the gate by armed police, who enforced the ban.
The hateful, antisemitic nature of the airline’s action was on full display in a video posted on social media that showed a Jewish traveler questioning a Lufthansa agent after disembarking. Asked why this traveler and other identifiable Jews were barred from boarding, the agent can be heard saying, “It was Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.”
Lufthansa agent: “It was Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.”
Lufthansa, Germany’s flag carrier and largest airline, issued a public apology yesterday, acknowledging regret for punishing the large group instead of the non-compliant passengers and asserting that it has “zero tolerance for racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination of any type.”
This discrimination against Jewish passengers brings to mind the bigoted policy of Kuwait Airways (KAC), which refuses to sell tickets to Israeli passport-holders. As you may recall, The Lawfare Project confronted KAC’s unlawful practice several years ago, which resulted in the ongoing stoppage of its popular JFK-London flight route along with all inter-European routes.
“I note with great concern that Jewish passengers are again being discriminated against at a German airport, only because of being Jewish, and this time by the national German airline,” said Nathan Gelbart, The Lawfare Project’s counsel in Germany who spearheaded our actions against KAC. “Denying boarding to this large group of Jewish passengers because a few Jews allegedly did not wear their face masks reminds me of the darkest days of this country. The Lawfare Project and I will take all necessary steps to put an end to this antisemitic activity at Frankfurt Airport, and to hold those responsible to account. The fact that Lufthansa, together with the German federal police, is apparently following the racist example of Kuwait Airways is shocking and must not be accepted.”
The Lawfare Project will do everything possible in order to ensure that the law is properly enforced to protect the civil rights of Jewish travelers, and that justice is served.