Is Delta Guilty of Antisemitism?

Chasidic girls (Pinterest)

Yes, it probably could have been avoided had a group of 19 Chasidic Jewish girls been meticulous about following the rules. But the appalling reaction by KLM’s flight staff to what these girls allegedly did was so out of proportion that it smacks of antisemitism. That has now resulted in a lawsuit against KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and their American partner, Delta Air Lines. Here’s the story from JTA: 

(A) group of young women and their chaperones were prevented from boarding a flight traveling from Amsterdam to New York allegedly for eating outside of designated mealtimes — a violation of the airlines’ COVID-19 protocols. 

… the plaintiffs said they only removed their masks to eat the kosher food they had brought themselves, and that airline personnel never informed them that they were not adhering to the mask requirements. 

… no other passengers were punished for removing their masks or eating their own food, and the women were singled out “solely for the purpose of unlawfully harassing plaintiffs because of their Jewish race, ethnicity, and/or religion.” 

…When the group attempted to board their next flight in Amsterdam, 19 of them were not allowed to board. Two of the barred passengers had not even been on the first flight from Kyiv to Amsterdam. The plaintiffs spent the night in the airport. 

… chaperones were told they would be arrested if they did not board the second flight without their charges. 

The 19 travelers were also removed from a flight the next day after they attempted to switch seats with other, non-Jewish passengers in for those passengers to sit together. Other passengers who also switched seats were not removed from the plane, the complaint alleges.

In the end, the group took a train to Antwerp, Belgium — home to a sizable Orthodox Jewish community — where they spent Shabbat. 

On its face the behavior toward these girls was so outrageous, so out of proportion that this lawsuit ought to be a ‘no brainer’. Delta ought pay big time for what they made these girls go through. Punitive damages ought to hurt. There is no excuse for their over the top reaction to those girls while at the same time ignoring the same violations by other passengers. 

The only way to explain why these girls were singled out is that they were identifiably Orthodox. Both on the first flight and on the second. I really hope Delta gets taken to the cleaners, here. They deserve it.  Maybe – just maybe – they will think twice about picking on Orthodox Jewish girls again.

On the other hand, Delta deserves their day in court. If there is more to the story than the suit alleges, that might change how their reaction should be viewed. If for example there were other violations or the continued violation of the alleged behavior - spurning the repeated the warnings, then removal may have been justified on the first flight. And on the second flight they might have been subjected to extra scrutiny having warned about their behavior on the first flight. 

I have no idea what Delta’s defense might be. We shall see. But if the what happened on those flights is pretty much the way it was described in the lawsuit,  Delta deserves what they will (hopefully) get. Soft bigotry disguised as fight staff simply doing their jobs ought not be rewarded by allowing it to pass with impunity.