The US Department of Transportation has fined the German airline Lufthansa for 4 million US dollars for refusing to allow Jewish passengers to transfer to their flight to Hungary in 2022.
In May 2022, when the Covid period ended, hundreds of American Hasidic passengers from New York were stranded in Frankfurt, after Lufthansa refused to allow them to transfer to their connecting flight to Hungary. The reason given was that some of the passengers were Jewish and did not comply with the rules on wearing masks.
The members of the group refused to wear FFP2 masks on board, which at the time was against the regulations for coronavirus.
According to the US Department of Transportation, “due to the alleged misbehaviour of some passengers, Lufthansa staff treated them all as a group and denied them boarding,” while the passengers largely did not know each other.
One of the passengers involved, Itsy Helpern from New York, told the German newspaper Bild that after the incident, „There were about 150 Jewish passengers on board – 149 were wearing masks, one was not. This led to the problems”
A video shows a Lufthansa employee telling passengers:
„It was Jewish people who made the mess, who caused the trouble”. A passenger asked back, „Jewish people were causing problems on the flight, and then all Jews are banned from the flight?”. The answer was „Only from this flight.“
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr apologised for the antisemitic incident in a video conference with Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal.
„There is no place for antisemitism at Lufthansa. The actions of last Wednesday should not have taken place in this way, and this must now be made absolutely clear. Lufthansa is about connecting people, cultures and nations. Openness and tolerance are its cornerstones and there is no place for antisemitism,“ he said.
At the time, Lufthansa apologised for the incident and later paid two million dollars to those affected. This will be included in the current fine, so the airline will have to pay another two million dollars, explained the Transportation Department on Tuesday.
This fine is the highest ever imposed by the US Department of Transportation for civil rights violations.
„No one should face discrimination when they travel, and today’s action sends a clear message to the airline industry that we are prepared to investigate and take action whenever passengers’ civil rights are violated,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
At the time of the incident, Lufthansa pledged to create a new senior management position „to prevent discrimination and antisemitism”, to create a new staff training component around antisemitism and to adopt the IHRA definition.
Source: tev.hu
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