The Haifa District Court has ordered El Al to pay two Israeli Arabs $4,000 each in compensation for the humiliation they suffered last year at the hands of one of the airline’s security guards.

The ruling follows a major campaign over the past two years by the NIF family, which has raised public awareness of the discriminatory behavior towards non-Jewish passengers by guards employed by El Al and the Israel Airports Authority.  Consequently, new equipment has been installed at Ben Gurion Airport, which reduces the invasiveness of security searches.

This incident, however, occurred last year at New York’s JFK Airport when Abed El-Wahab Shalabi, 44, and his brother Aziz, 43, insurance agents from the village of Iksal were waiting to board their flight back to Israel.

An El Al security guard, Keren Weinberg, decided that the brothers were suspicious and that she needed to accompany them to the plane.  When Abed El Wahab went to the bathroom, Weinberg reprimanded him for not having received her permission.  The situation escalated when Abed El Wahab insisted he had committed no offence and that Weinberg should leave them alone.  The Shalabis were then told by a senior security officer that they could only board the flight if they apologized to Weinberg.  Humiliated and fearful of missing their flight, they apologized.

Judge Amir Toubi said that making an apology a condition of boarding the flight was an abuse of power.  He added, “With all due understanding of security needs, there is still no justification for sweepingly ignoring the dignity, freedom and basic right of a citizen in the shade of the 'holy cow' of security."