Israeli pilot links judicial overhaul to Holocaust during passenger flight
Israeli airline El Al has condemned the pilot of one of its flights for criticising the country's controversial judicial reforms over the public address system during a flight to New York.
The pilot compared the reforms, which have sparked months of protests in Israel, to the Holocaust and noted the importance of democracy, saying “things like the Holocaust can potentially happen in dictatorships, and we are fighting for Israel to remain a democratic country".
The incident occurred on Holocaust Memorial Day, during which Israel commemorates the six million Jews systematically murdered during World War Two.
In a statement, El Al said that it denounced "political statements of any kind, by any of its employees as part of their work, and certainly not on its planes, which cannot be a platform for this type of activity”.
The company ordered that such incidents be avoided, especially on such a "sensitive and significant day" for the people of Israel.
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The incident has raised tensions between the airline and the Israeli government, with Transport Minister Miri Regev criticising the pilots for behaving as if they are “the landlords” of the company.
The government had recently been involved in a dispute with El Al over the company’s difficulty providing a team to fly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane to Italy last month.
The pilot’s statement has also highlighted concerns over the state of democracy in Israel, particularly with regards to the government’s proposed judicial reform.
The proposals would curtail the authority of the Supreme Court and give politicians greater powers over the selection of judges.
Opponents of the reform argue that it could weaken the judiciary and lead to a dictatorial regime.
In a separate incident, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich received a threatening letter containing swastikas, apparently in response to the Holocaust commemoration.
The letter read: “You want to destroy Israel…Are you ready for the time when things turn? You idiot. You preserve in life the historical cycle – victim becomes perpetrator.”
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