Israeli airline no longer able to move women just because a man asks

An Israeli airline will no longer be able to move women to a new seat just because of their gender.

Airline El Al lost a lawsuit against them that alleged gender discrimination because women were being told to change seats when men refused to be seated next to them for religious reasons.

Renee Rabinowitz, an 83-year-old former lawyer and holocaust survivor, filed the suit after she herself was asked to move.

She told U.K. newspaper the Guardian her story.

“It was 2015. I was flying back from Newark to Tel Aviv,” she said.

She said she then saw the man whispering with a flight attendant who offered her a “better” seat.

“It wasn’t better so I asked why did he suggest moving me. Then I realized he’d done so because the man sitting next to me had requested that I move. I asked him what his problem was and I said I was 81. He started to tell me about how the Torah prohibits it.”

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She said she eventually moved seats because she didn’t want to sit for her 11-hour flight next to someone who didn’t want her there.

She later sued the airline arguing she felt “deep humiliation,” the Israel Religious Center, which represented her, said in a statement.

On Wednesday the Israeli court sided with her in a landmark ruling, saying asking women to change seats at the request of ultra-Orthodox passengers violated anti-discrimination laws.

It awarded Rabinowitz, 6,500 shekels ($2,425) in damages. El Al will also be required to issue a written directive to staff saying that requests like Rabinowitz’s are illegal.

Incidents in which flights on El Al and several non-Israeli airlines have been delayed on the tarmac over the refusal of some ultra-Orthodox men to sit next to women have drawn media attention in recent years.

One news article about a February incident described the scene as “mayhem” when men refused to take their seats and stood in the aisle for an extended period of time. Eventually the women offered to change seats.

Rabinowitz says it’s not just the flights that are the problem, that women’s rights and attitudes towards women is a growing concern.

“I think it is related to the fact that the ultra-orthodox have a lot of political power so they feel freer to make demands that they don’t make in the U.S.,” she told the Guardian.

But she’s happy the court ruled in her favour as quickly as it did.

“I’m so happy. And my phone has not stopped ringing. Since yesterday I’ve had more than 100 e-mails congratulating me.”

—With files from Reuters