Stop the bullying, intimidation, and discrimination against women on El Al flights!
Stop the bullying, intimidation, and discrimination against women on El Al flights!
Why this petition matters
If a passenger was being verbally or physically abusive to airline staff, they would immediately be removed from the plane. If a passenger was flouting the rules for take-off, thereby causing flight delay, they would immediately be removed from the plane.
If a passenger was openly engaging in racial or religious discrimination against another passenger or flight attendant, they would immediately be removed from the plane.
Why then, does El Al Airlines allow gender discrimination against women?
Why does El Al Airlines permit female passengers to be bullied, harassed, and intimidated into switching seats which they rightfully paid for and were assigned to by El Al Airlines? One person's religious rights do not trump another person's civil rights.
If El Al Airlines wants to truly accommodate all of its passengers, it will reserve a few rows of separate sex seating on every flight, where for a fee, those passengers who need such seating can pre-book their seats and not annoy or coerce other passengers before take-off to change seats with them - thereby avoiding arguments, bullying, and delayed take-off.
If, under government regulations forbidding airline carriers to offer segregated seating based upon sex, El Al is unable to carry out such religious accomodations directly, perhaps indirectly El Al can refer such requests to independent private travel agencies who buy block seating for such purposes. Religious passengers could then purchase tickets through those private agencies that will guarantee same sex seating.
There are some incredibly creative and talented minds out there - Ari Teman and his firm 12Gurus created this mock-up cabin configuration - complete with the idea of changeable partitions (to block sound from noisy groups and children) that enable adjustments in the numbers of rows necessary for individual flights based on passenger seating preferences.
This is just one idea, but there are many other creative people ready and willing to help out El Al solve this dilemma to everyone's satisfaction. Click the url directly below to see the 12Gurus design suggestion.
DISCLAIMER - I received permission to share their design concept, but 12Gurus is not associated with this petition in any way. http://12gurus.com/12gurus/elal/
Recent events that helped spark this petition:
http://www.jewfem.com/easyblog1/entry/my-book-tour-round-up-five-cities-in-four-states-in-ten-days