Furor after El Al fires staffer for Facebook post critical of Icelandic band

TOI STAFF

Critics threaten boycott of airline for sacking employee who posted seating info for Eurovision entry Hatari, apparently in revenge for group’s pro-Palestinian gesture

Iceland’s Hatari holds up Palestinian flags during Eurovision in Tel Aviv, May 19, 2019. (YouTube screenshot)

El Al’s sacking of a staff member for a Facebook post critical of Iceland’s entry to the Eurovision song contest has kindled furor and threats of a boycott on social media.

The techno-metal steampunk act, Hatari, won effusive jeers during the song contest in Israel last month for displaying Palestinian flags when it was shown on TV briefly during the vote-tally stage of the show last month.

After the contest, a post emerged from a closed El Al Facebook group in which a staff member showed how the delegation had been split up, and given seats in the back rows.

“This is how the Icelandic delegation will be treated,” she wrote, suggesting that the seating arrangements were in revenge for the band’s pro-Palestinian gesture.

On seeing the post after arriving back in Iceland, Hatari announced that it was considering filing a formal complaint with El Al over the claim, reported on an Icelandic site, that ground crews intentionally seated band members in undesirable seats.

On Tuesday, Channel 12 TV show host Guy Pines revealed that the staff member had been fired.

Right-wing activist and rapper “The Shadow” immediately posted a video clip of himself setting fire to his El Al frequent flyer card.

Right-wing rapper and activist “The Shadow” filmed himself setting fire to his El Al Israel Airlines frequent flyer card to protest the company’s firing of a staff member who wrote a Facebook post about the poor seating allocated to the Iceland entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. (Channel 12 screenshot)

“That’s what I think of El Al, and every person who is sick of the State of Israel being humiliated should do the same and burn their cards. If you don’t bring that air hostess back to work, we will boycott you. We’ve already brought companies to their knees and we’ll bring you down as well.”

Among other comments posted on El Al’s Facebook page were “Shame on you for firing an air hostess who cares about national pride!” and “Bring back the air hostess immediately!”

Channel 12 News reported Thursday that the unnamed air hostess claimed she was still working for El Al and that she had no idea about the uproar. “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t see, I didn’t hear,” she said.

El Al sources however confirmed that she had been fired and said in a statement that the dismissal was not related to the seating, over which she had no responsibility, but for violating company policy by photographing the seating plan on El Al’s computer and in so doing exposing commercial information and harming the privacy of passengers.

The Icelandic news site mbl.is had reported that the band was assigned the center seats in the plane’s three back rows — allegedly in an unspoken protest by the airline’s Israeli staff.

An Israeli identified by Icelandic media as Daher Dahli claimed on social media he had heard El Al ground staff boasting about the seat assignments, and quoted a staffer saying “This is what they get.”
A photograph of an El Al screen showing the seating plan for the Iceland delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest on its return journey from Tel Aviv to Iceland last month. (Channel 12 screenshot)

The band first made waves in March by promising to use its Eurovision platform to highlight opposition to Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.

The move drew a rebuke from Eurovision officials, who noted the contest was careful to avoid politicization.

In the end, Hatari’s performances in the contest went without incident, but the band snuck banners with Palestinian flags on them into the final announcement of the winners after the Saturday night final, and held them up when the camera turned to them.

After the protest gesture, band member Stefansson, sporting a spiked leather face mask, posted a video online showing security trying to confiscate the flags.

The European Broadcast Union said the flag display contradicted its rules and may carry consequences, according to Reuters.

These shows of solidarity did not impress the Palestinian boycott movement, however, which had pushed for bands to cancel their Eurovision appearances and said it “overwhelmingly rejects fig-leaf gestures of solidarity from international artists crossing our peaceful picket line.”

4 Israeli space-tech firms win innovation grants

Abigail Klein Leichman

From left, Israel Innovation Authority CEO Aharon Aharon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Space Florida President and CEO Frank DiBello singing a memorandum of understanding at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Tel Aviv. Photo by Jorge Novominsky

Four Israeli companies have won R&D grants from the Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Program, founded in 2013 to support research, development, and commercialization of aerospace and technology projects that benefit both Israel and Florida.

The program is a joint initiative of Space Florida, the aerospace and spaceport development authority for the State of Florida, and the Israel Innovation Authority, an independent, publicly funded agency created to address the needs of the local and international innovation ecosystems.

The company pairs that won grants in the sixth round of awards are:

Nano Dimension (Ness Ziona, Israel) and Harris Corporation (Melbourne, Florida), for development of 3D printing materials on the International Space Station (ISS) for lower-cost manufacturing of small satellites.

SpacePharma (Herzliya, Israel) and CadW Therapeutics/Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, Florida), which are developing a microfluidics Lab-On-A-Chip that analyzes stress and DNA damage/responses during space flight.

Polymertal (Haifa, Israel) and Semplastics (Oviedo, Florida), for the development of a novel variety of hybrid materials for aviation and space applications ranging from structural parts to electronic assemblies.

StemRad (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Lockheed Martin (Kennedy Space Center, Florida) will use their grant for final development and testing of AstroRad, a wearable radiation shield for astronauts, on the Orion EM-1 mission.

“Israel’s innovative aerospace sector is reaching new heights, on both a local and international level,” said Aharon Aharon, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority. “Joint research and development between cutting-edge companies from both Israel and Florida will help usher in the next generation of space exploration and build bridges resulting in groundbreaking innovations benefitting the entire aerospace industry.”

“For six years, the partnership between Space Florida and the Israel Innovation Authority has stimulated cutting-edge ideas and added to the body of research in aviation and aerospace. Today’s agreement will also expand into vital areas of shared concern like agriculture, clean water and cybersecurity,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.

Qatar Says Economic Conditions for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Require ‘Fair Political Solutions’

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attends the country’s consultative Shoura council in Doha, Qatar, November 6, 2018. Photo: Qatar News Agency/Handout via REUTERS.

Qatar said on Friday that economic development needed for Israeli-Palestinian peace could not be achieved without “fair political solutions” acceptable to Palestinians, referring to a US plan set to be unveiled next month.

The White House will lay out the first part of President Donald Trump’s long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan when it holds an international conference in Bahrain in late June.

The plan, touted by Trump as the “deal of the century,” is expected to encourage investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Arab donor countries before grappling with thorny political issues at the heart of the conflict.

Palestinian officials have rebuked the US effort, which they believe will be heavily biased in favor of Israel.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement, commented on the upcoming conference: “Tackling these challenges requires sincerity of intent, concerted efforts from regional and international players, and appropriate political conditions for economic prosperity.”

“These conditions would not be achieved without fair political solutions to the issues of the peoples of the region, especially the Palestinian issue, in accordance with a framework acceptable to the brotherly Palestinian people,” the statement said.

Qatar, a close US ally and home to its largest Middle East air base, has poured millions of dollars into the impoverished Gaza Strip over the past year to boost its ailing economy, and this month pledged an additional $480 million to support both Gaza and the West Bank.

The tiny Gulf state has not said whether it will attend the June 25-26 conference in Manama, which is expected to include representatives and business executives from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, including some finance ministers.

Chief among the Palestinians’ concerns is whether the plan will meet their core demand of calling for them to have an independent state in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip — territory Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Trump’s Middle East team, led by his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, has declined to say whether the plan includes a two-state solution, a central goal of other recent peace efforts that is widely endorsed internationally.

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