Jerusalem – Israeli airline companies Arkia and El Al were presented with a legal challenge this week after being sued by three female Arab-Israeli students who claim to have been brutally frisked without cause before boarding a flight from Serbia to Israel.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The three students booked an organized tour in Serbia that was offered by Israeli airline Arkia.
Upon their return to Israel they were asked to step away from other group members and frisked in a manner that they claim to be brutal and without due cause.
El Al is jointly being sued as it provides all Israeli airlines with security services outside the country. The students are being represented by the lawyer Awni Banna.
The students had been asked to remove their clothes and were thoroughly frisked by an all-female team of Israeli security workers.
Allegedly, the students were told that unless they comply with all of the demands made to them by the female security team they would not be allowed to board the flight home.
They were asked to remove their clothes, searched in a way they felt is inappropriate, and one student was ordered to hand over her mobile phone for further inquiries, claim their lawyers.
Allegedly, one student fainted during these procedures.
They were eventually allowed to board the flight but placed under constant surveillance during their stay at the airport.
The prosecution claims that it is unclear if Israeli airline security has the legal right to conduct strip-searches or to inspect mobile devices unless given clear agreement to do so by the owner of the device.
“The physical frisk and the intimate violation of their bodies left these women with a trauma and emotional scars”, stated the prosecution, “and this pain will accompany them for a long time.”
they should sue al queiida, ISIS, the koran that ppreaches ‘kill the infeidel ‘ etc etc which causes others to be suspicious of muslims
A little internet search shows a lot of strip searches. Like Shileen Flynn in Vancouver (Canada) by CBSA agents (not El Al), apparently suffering at least three such strip searches by age 29! And a 17-year-old the year before on a domestic flight yet! These made the (minor) news only because of something extra, like the woman claims to have been ridiculed and mocked during the search and the 17-year-old was a minor and the parents were not properly informed. Otherwise, it just a dog-bites-man story that never shows up.
And then a 68-year-old “short, slight, bespectacled man who was born in India” strip searched by TSA (not El Al) in the U.S. early 2017. Again the only reason this made any coverage at all is because the victim had already been given a clear pass etc.
i am behind el al here. let them take a different airline. they don’t exactly have a good track record …
That’s what you get for making it harder for men to change seats for shmira.
Yes, airport security is unpleasant. Israeli airport security is the most unpleasant.
I don’t appreciate the snide comments, here. How would some of you like to be strip searched, including having a body cavity search? If the answer is no, then you should keep your holier than thou comments to yourselves. Certainly, El Al, and Arkia have sophisticated equipment, which can tell if anybody (including all passengers), are carrying explosives, or other dangerous weapons. It is bad enough that at times, security agents have to grope our groin areas. However, to have females disrobe, and be felt in private areas, when they haven’t done anything (outside of traveling while being an Arab), is a bunch of garbage, as far as I’m concerned. I remember a case in Columbus, Ohio about 10 years ago, whereby a female motorist became involved in a traffic case, with a Black cop, over a moving violation ticket. She didn’t want to sign the ticket, because of some misleading language on the declaration, which appeared, where she was to sign it. Then, he placed her under arrest. She was strip searched, and frisked in public, by some female officers. She suffered severe emotional distress. She sued the city, and was paid $50,000. The idiotic cop denied any wrongdoing; yeh, sure!
This is why I only fly El Al