[ April 20, 2024 ]
German diplomats have sparked an international backlash after they said accusations of antisemitism against Kuwait Airways over its “no Israelis” policy is highly exaggerated.
A German lawyer has sued the airline for its policy — and members of the Simon Wiesenthal Center have joined the legal fray.
But apparently, to German diplomats, barring Israelis from flying the Kuwait Airways skies is A-OK.
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The Jerusalem Post has more:
German diplomats have said accusations of antisemitism against Kuwait Airways for its practice of refusing Israeli passengers are exaggerated, triggering sharp criticism from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and a German lawyer who sued the airline.
The statement defending state-owned Kuwait Airways was first reported by the Düsseldorf-based business daily Handelsblatt on Monday.
A court in Frankfurt ruled in November that Kuwait Airways was within its rights to refuse service to an Israeli citizen. The Israeli in the lawsuit had booked a flight on Kuwait Airways from Frankfurt to Bangkok.
Katharina Ziegler, a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, declined to comment on the record in response to a query from The Jerusalem Post addressed to Heiko Maas, the new foreign minister. Maas has promised improved German-Israel relations after the anti-Israel policies of his predecessor, Sigmar Gabriel. Germany’s Foreign Ministry is widely viewed as one of the harshest critics of the Jewish state within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration. The US- and EU-designated terrorist entity Hamas praised Gabriel in January for terming Israel an “apartheid regime.”
The Handelsblatt article, authored by Moritz Koch and Daniel Delhaes, alleged that there is little understanding within the Transportation Ministry for Scheuer’s threatened sanctions against Kuwait Airways. The criticism of Kuwait Airways, wrote the paper without sourcing, was termed a “complete farce” by anonymous sources within the ministry.
German “diplomats told Handelsblatt that relations with an important Arab partner country are being jeopardized for an internal domestic campaign.” The diplomats added that it was problematic that Kuwait Airways refuses to serve Israelis.
According to Handelsblatt, unnamed experts in the Transportation Ministry said if Kuwait Airways is penalized by Transportation Minister Andreas Scheuer, then “He will have to cancel the [aviation] agreements with other Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Iran.” Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Arab states deny service to Israelis.
Nathan Gelbart, the Lawfare Project’s German counsel and the attorney for the Israeli plaintiff suing Kuwait Airways, told the Post on Saturday that “Handelsblatt is quoting anonymous German diplomats who criticize Minister Andreas Scheuer‘s pressure on Kuwait Airlines as exaggerated, and this quote completely lacks minimal journalistic standards and is not appropriate for comment.”
Gelbart said, “Three federal governmental ministries have clearly condemned Kuwait Airways’ policy of boycotting Israeli passengers departing from German airports, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
He added that “Kuwait Airways is the only airline boycotting passengers in Germany from only one country, even though they’re booked on destinations they hold valid travel documents for: Israelis. Singling out Israelis as a target of discrimination and boycott meets all definitions of antisemitism. Letting this happen in Germany has an especially bitter taste, and fighting this phenomenon is just and right and definitely not exaggerated.”
When asked about the German diplomat’s comment, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Post:
“This is clearly a case of a policy rooted in antisemitism. It has already been widely acknowledged that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism, and the stance adopted by Kuwait Airlines is clearly another example of this phenomenon.”
Kuwait Airways dropped service between New York and London in 2015 after the US Department of Transportation ordered the airline to cease refusing to transport Israeli citizens between the US and any third country where they are allowed to disembark.
Volker Beck, a Green Party politician, said on Friday, “Anyone who excludes citizens of the Jewish and democratic state from transportation violates anti-discrimination law and transportation law. Anyone who does not recognize this is a part of the problem.”
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55 Comments
6 years ago
coward idiots of germoney
-> antisemite & bigot no. 1, ‘… so kill him’ (gueSS who?) https://sunnah.com/bukhari/56/138-139 https://sunnah.com/muslim/54/101-105
6 years ago
Clearly the NAZI within the Germans is alive and well.
Merkel prefers doing business with MUSLIMS.
Germany sold chemical weapons to Syria too.
The EU is anti-Israel.
6 years ago
Scammer BLOCKED and FLAGGED!
6 years ago
Why would you fly on an airline run by barbarians? Fly El-Al.
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-this-day-the-first-and-only-el-al-hijacking-1.5298481
6 years ago
Reply to
Templar Bubba
El Al’s service on TLV-BKK has to take a 3-hour detour to Djbouti and thus isn’t advantageous. Air India, which can and does fly over Saudi Arabia (and Oman) to and from Israel on its DEL-TLV route (route begun last month; it was the first airline ever granted overflight over Saudi Arabia to and from Israel) is better advantaged. Because of that, most Israelis will fly Royal Jordanian or Turkish Airlines instead.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Agree. Trump was conned by Abbas initially but when he found out the truth boy was he mad as hell at the jihadi http://bit.ly/2rOmfyJ
That’s when he decided enough is enough and that inspite of huge opposition led to shifting of Embassy to Jerusalem and No more funding to the jihadis.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Um I was referring to this particular value judgement muslum hawse hole:
“…most Israelis will fly Royal Jordanian or Turkish Airlines instead.”
Prove this assertion dishonest muslum hawse hole…
6 years ago
Anti-Semitism does not apply. One has many choices of transit, including via DXB (that is different because at DXB, provided the connecting flight also leaves from DXB, one isn’t technically entering the UAE). You can’t process someone with whom you have no diplomatic relations.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Okay then, there should be two planes – one just for muslims and one for everybody else. That should solve the problem.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
The muslimes won’t find the food, the people, the hair, the whatever else they find offensive, they can load the plane with goats and camels for sexual emergencies, and allow machetes and knives on boards. That way the muslimes will be happy and therefore no more complaints.
6 years ago
Reply to
Gemma Tell
It’s a good plan, but unfortunately muslims cannot be appeased-once they have killed all of us off, they’ll happily go back to exterminating each other
6 years ago
All of Kuwait Airways’ destinations are to and from KWI (the JFK to KWI route is now nonstop on the inbound trip; the outbound stops in SNN for fuel). The JFK-LHR issue was different because an Israeli didn’t intend to fly to Kuwait. Because of that, the issue is an artificial crisis since Israeli citizens are not admissible into Kuwait, and so why board them? It’s not as though they want to fly to a destination or transit point that isn’t KWI. If this were an issue of a fifth freedom service (Air India has replaced Kuwait Airways on that route, flying AMD-LHR-EWR). As such, I don’t see a problem with Kuwait Airways’ policies. That Israel could have easily booked itineraries on Turkish Airlines (which is the most popular way for one-stop travel to and from Israel), Emirates or Etihad (possible since there is a transit spot where he wouldn’t have to be admitted into the UAE), Ethiopian, or just book a nonstop on Lufthansa or Thai Airways International.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
I wonder if you’d have the same dismissive response if one of those airlines arbitrarily banned YOU from flying.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
No. It was very specific. Don’t worry, just the response I expected.
6 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
The facts of the situation would not be. Besides, this isn’t arbitrary.
6 years ago
Why cannot we ban Muslims?
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
The Constitution isn’t a suicide pact dishonest muslum knuckle dragger.
6 years ago
Reply to
IzlamDownpressesHumanity
This doesn’t make the COTUS a suicide pact…and I’m not Muslim. Why hasn’t your head been chopped off for lying?
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
You’re a lying muslum knuckledragger, but that’s par-for-the-course w/your death cult isn’t it?
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Jefferson didn’t seem to have any problems keeping them away from the US
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Jefferson got the job done &nobody cares how, just as long as your fav type of scum is kept out
6 years ago
germany drools, it is inhabited by fools who are muslim’s tools. muslims treat germans like mules, deservedly so. Stupidity, thy name is german.
6 years ago
Proverbs 26:11
Well of course the German diplomats see no problem. My question is why would any Jew want to give Kuwait Airways their business in the first place? Would they fly the unfriendly skies of Hitler Airways (don’t answer it’s a rhetorical question)? It’s becoming more and more obvious that Europe isn’t a wise place for the children of Abraham to live. We all know the saying about those who don’t study history, it’s patently obvious that far too few DO study the lessons from our past…
6 years ago
This is always been a German problem: Denial. They denied ‘certain things’ happened 70+ years ago, they are still doing it today. It’s part of the culture to just gloss over even the most obvious that which does not directly affect them.
6 years ago
germans regret lufthansa doesn’t institute selection to refuse Jewish passengers.
6 years ago
RETURN their submarines. I don’t know why you bought them from Germany. This country HATES your guts!
6 years ago
Reply to
Alleged-Comment
Those Dolphin subs are one-of-a-kind. No other country makes fuel-cell driven subs (or if they do they haven’t announced the fact).
6 years ago
The USA moved away from such policies years ago. You no longer see signs like the below: And yet Germany and the muslims are trying to resurrect the discrimination that the USA has long fought over. Kuwait Airlines need to be sued out of existence and the German diplomats facing jail time for being prejudiced against people without reason. In fact, I would like to see more criminal complaints brought against officials who advocate requiring muslim teachings and discrimination against Christians, Jews, or Caucasians.
6 years ago
Reply to
Sunshine Kid
Um, I’ll bet that sign was put up shortly after Pearl Harbor, which for some reason engendered a lot of animosity for Japanese even if American.
6 years ago
Reply to
IzlamDownpressesHumanity
Actually, that sign was from 1923, in California. San Francisco, I believe.
6 years ago
Reply to
IzlamDownpressesHumanity
True. But remember, back in those days racism was normal, not like it is today, reversed and shouted to the loudest bulwarks of the news media.
6 years ago
Not allowing Israelis on their airplanes is not anti-Semitic? More useless diplomat speak! Well, I guess if the Germans say it is not anti-Semitic, it probably isn’t. They are the experts!
6 years ago
I don’t know if they fly to an American Territory, if they do, don’t provide landing rights.
Muslim swine should be banned from entering the United States.
6 years ago
Not going to be flying around in a kuwaiti aereoplane anytime soon . And could have gotten a connecting flight from Bangkok to Saigon .
Validate your 2nd Amendment Rights …. Carry !
6 years ago
I truly don’t understand this Jewish/Israeli hatred by not only Muslims but many others too.
6 years ago
The swastika crowd is back.
