Retired lawyer sues Israeli airline after she was asked to move seat
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Again and again, this bumps up with my core belief that, you can believe whatever the hell you want, as long as you don't impose it on others. This is a clear violation of that.
AFAICT, all we really know is that it's "company policy" to try to accommodate these requests -- which due to things like the above I think is more tenable for the company in public-relations/customer-service terms -- but we don't know that it specifically says the man is to stay in his seat and the woman must move. Maybe that's what this particular flight attendant chose to suggest for this particular scenario. It's impossible to please everybody all the time with this type of situation.
It may seem unusual if you're from the U.S... but the (at least nominally) strict equivalence of religious beliefs and communities under the law we have (and take for granted) here is, on the world stage, actually a very peculiar thing, indeed.
I completely agree, but how far are you will to extend that logic? Because in this specific case the passenger that was asked to move is trying to impose her egalitarian beliefs on those that established the airline's policies for pandering to the orthodox.
I think the best way to correct this sort of stupidity is to let the market handle it, instead of throwing another exception to a basic principle onto the pile: you can believe what you want... unless you operate a business in a specific industry with an employee count greater than X.
No, not true. He could've moved. :)
The article's key quote:
> Rabinowitz, a Jew who attends synagogue and keeps a kosher home, told the Guardian: “The man had no other reason to complain than my gender – and that’s unlawful discrimination. It’s no different than if a person of another religion had said: ‘I don’t want to sit next to a Jew.’ And I don’t believe El Al would move a person in those circumstance.”
> “He started to tell me it was forbidden by the Torah. I interrupted him to say the Torah says nothing about a man sitting next to a woman. He conceded I was right, but said there was a general principle that a person should not put himself in a dangerous situation."
So not only is it not explicitly forbidden by the Torah -- this whole thing is somebody's interpretation -- but the general principle being invoked says, don't put yourself in a dangerous situation; it doesn't say that you get to rearrange everyone around you! Either find an acceptable seat yourself, or get off the plane!