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GERMAN DIPLOMATS DEFEND KUWAIT AIRWAYS’ ‘NO ISRAELIS ALLOWED’ POLICY

BENJAMIN WEINTHAL

Kuwait Airways. (photo credit: STEVE FITZGERALD/WIKIMEDIA)

German diplomats have said accusations of antisemitism against Kuwait Airways for its practice of refusing Israeli passengers are exaggerated, triggering sharp criticism from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and a German lawyer who sued the airline.

The statement defending state-owned Kuwait Airways was first reported by the Düsseldorf-based business daily Handelsblatt on Monday.

A court in Frankfurt ruled in November that Kuwait Airways was within its rights to refuse service to an Israeli citizen. The Israeli in the lawsuit had booked a flight on Kuwait Airways from Frankfurt to Bangkok.

Katharina Ziegler, a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, declined to comment on the record in response to a query from The Jerusalem Post addressed to Heiko Maas, the new foreign minister. Maas has promised improved German-Israel relations after the anti-Israel policies of his predecessor, Sigmar Gabriel. Germany’s Foreign Ministry is widely viewed as one of the harshest critics of the Jewish state within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration. The US- and EU-designated terrorist entity Hamas praised Gabriel in January for terming Israel an “apartheid regime.”

The Handelsblatt article, authored by Moritz Koch and Daniel Delhaes, alleged that there is little understanding within the Transportation Ministry for Scheuer’s threatened sanctions against Kuwait Airways. The criticism of Kuwait Airways, wrote the paper without sourcing, was termed a “complete farce” by anonymous sources within the ministry.

German “diplomats told Handelsblatt that relations with an important Arab partner country are being jeopardized for an internal domestic campaign.” The diplomats added that it was problematic that Kuwait Airways refuses to serve Israelis.

According to Handelsblatt, unnamed experts in the Transportation Ministry said if Kuwait Airways is penalized by Transportation Minister Andreas Scheuer, then “He will have to cancel the [aviation] agreements with other Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Iran.” Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Arab states deny service to Israelis.

Nathan Gelbart, the Lawfare Project’s German counsel and the attorney for the Israeli plaintiff suing Kuwait Airways, told the Post on Saturday that “Handelsblatt is quoting anonymous German diplomats who criticize Minister Andreas Scheuer‘s pressure on Kuwait Airlines as exaggerated, and this quote completely lacks minimal journalistic standards and is not appropriate for comment.”

Gelbart said, “Three federal governmental ministries have clearly condemned Kuwait Airways’ policy of boycotting Israeli passengers departing from German airports, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

He added that “Kuwait Airways is the only airline boycotting passengers in Germany from only one country, even though they’re booked on destinations they hold valid travel documents for: Israelis. Singling out Israelis as a target of discrimination and boycott meets all definitions of antisemitism. Letting this happen in Germany has an especially bitter taste, and fighting this phenomenon is just and right and definitely not exaggerated.”

When asked about the German diplomat’s comment, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Post:

“This is clearly a case of a policy rooted in antisemitism. It has already been widely acknowledged that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism, and the stance adopted by Kuwait Airlines is clearly another example of this phenomenon.”

Kuwait Airways dropped service between New York and London in 2015 after the US Department of Transportation ordered the airline to cease refusing to transport Israeli citizens between the US and any third country where they are allowed to disembark.
Volker Beck, a Green Party politician, said on Friday, “Anyone who excludes citizens of the Jewish and democratic state from transportation violates anti-discrimination law and transportation law. Anyone who does not recognize this is a part of the problem.”

Israeli Athletes Banned from Taekwondo Competition in Tunisia

AP and United with Israel Staff

A Tunisian court bowed to pressure from an anti-Israel group by banning four Israeli athletes from competing in a taekwondo championship.

A court in Tunis has banned four Israeli athletes from competing at the taekwondo world junior championships after a group of anti-Israel activists who opposed “normalization” with Jewish state filed a last-minute lawsuit.

The competition is being held in the Tunisian seaside resort of Hammamet from April 6-13.

A judicial official said the court rendered its decision earlier this week after the Tunisian group known as the National Commission for Supporting Arab Resistance and Opposing Normalization and Zionism sued the president of the Tunisian taekwondo federation, Ahmed Gaaloul.
Prosecutor’s spokesman Sofiane Selliti told The Associated Press that the court decision stipulates that Gaaboul can’t invite, or host, the four Israeli athletes — Dana Azran, Nicol Adamskt, Abijhag Semberg and Tom Pashcousky — whose names were on the list of contestants.

Gaaloul told the AP in a phone interview that the athletes will not be invited because they did not complete the paperwork to enter the tournament.

However, Israel Ynet reported that registration forms were sent ahead of time, enclosed with requests for visas to Tunisia for the Israeli delegation.

After a prolonged period of Tunisian officials ignoring the request, the Israelis were promised visas to compete, but with no Israeli insignias or symbols.

An Israeli taekwondo official told Ynet that the delegation “sent all of the forms on time, including registration. We did everything in an orderly fashion to be granted visas. They never responded, and then promised we’ll get the visas. Now they’re lying and saying we failed to submit on time.”
The plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit, which was published by local media, that the athletes’ presence would clash with constitutional provisions and agreements signed by the Tunisian government. They argue that Tunisia has committed “boycotting and not dealing with the Zionist entity … in any way.”

Gaaloul said the activist group “misled the judges and used subterfuge” to exploit public opinion.

Heads of the Israeli Olympic Committee have begun to address the matter and have contacted the International Olympic Committee and World Taekwondo officials as well.

“We have done everything by the book, waited on the visas for ages and never got them, despite agreeing to compete without Israeli symbols. This is very serious,” the Israeli taekwondo official said.

Muslim Anti-Israel Sentiments in Sports

For years, Israeli athletes have faced boycotts, snubs and logistical hurdles in sporting events involving Arab and Muslim countries.

In November, Morocco refused entry to Israel’s national judo team.

In October, Israel’s Judo team encountered Muslim hostility in Abu Dhabi when the country barred Israel’s team from donning national symbols and refused to play the Jewish state’s national anthem during the tournament.

The 12 Israeli athletes participating in the Abu Dhabi Judo Grand Slam tournament were even prohibited from displaying the letters “ISR” on their uniforms to identify their nationality.

Similarly, in one of the competitions, Israel’s Tohar Butbul beat the UAE’s Rashad Almashjari, who then refused to shake hands after losing.

In February 2017, Iranian karate athlete Majid Hassaninia refused to compete against an Israeli opponent at the 21st Open de Paris – Karate Premier League in France. The Iranian’s unsportsmanlike conduct defied the accepted international code of honor in sports.

DOKUMENT PODRÓŻY (“Smutno tu bez was….”) – film dokumentalny, 1998

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