El Al negotiations

The crisis between the Haredi community and El Al is continuing.

The crisis was caused, briefly, because El Al flew and landed some planes on shabbos last week. El Al claims they considered it an emergency situation due to the effects of the strike that messed everything up. They had been inundated with requests from people who had to catch flights that were already terribly delayed, so they decided it was important enough to break with their usual protocol of not flying on shabbos.

The Haredim are up in arms over this because they had an agreement with the heads of El Al that El Al planes would not fly on shabbos. El Al is the national carrier and any flying on shabbos done by El Al is very much in the public eye. This is so despite the fact that El Al was privatized and is no longer officially the national carrier, nor government owned, because the perception in the public is that El Al is the airlines of Israel. The Haredim say that this was not serious enough to be deemed an emergency. They could have transferred passengers to other flights, even to El Al flights under the Sandor name (El Al has a sub-company called Sandor - the haredim have no beef with flights that take place on shabbos under the Sandor name because that is not in the public eye), or to other airlines. Due to El Al's lieral definition of "emergency" the Haredim decided to boycott El Al.

There were all sorts of pronunciations and declarations by the various leaders, such as without shabbos protecting El Al it is now dangerous to fly and therefore nobody (Haredi) should fly El Al, or it is assur to fly El Al because of the Hillul Shabbos, and the like.

El Al and the leaders of the Haredi public have been negotiating a new deal. The Haredim are insisting that El Al sign over exclusive decision making regarding future emergencies to the Haredi Rabbonim. if El Al should ever feel they are in an emergency situation that requores them to fly, they will first need to obtain the approval of the Rabbis. El Al is refusing to give over that level of control, so the negotiations continue and are currently very close to falling apart.

That is a brief review of the crisis.

I have no problem with a boycott of El Al.
If any consumer group feels they have enough buying power to request certain changes in a product or service to cater to their needs, they can threaten the provider to switch suppliers or providers.

If a group of people called up Heinz and said we do not like the way you make your ketchup and we will stop buying it unless you change this or that, more power to them. Heinz will listen to their requests. They will evaluate the buying power of the group compared to that of other groups. They will evaluate the finances involved in making such changes. And they will make a decision one way or the other. If Heinz decides not to make the requested changes then the group of people will have to decide whether to continue buying or not.

If the Haredim feel that they make up a significant percentage of El Al's business and they have enough power to threaten a boycott unless changes are made to the way El Al deals with shabbos observance, more power to them. El Al will have to weigh the potential loss of business with the other expenses involved and make a decision how to respond to the demand.

I am uncomfortable with the Haredi leaders using religion as the way of swaying their public to adhere to the boycott. If the leaders would get up and say we cannot fly El Al until they give in to our demands and show sensitivity to our needs, that would be fine. People would listen, maybe some would not, and they would ahve their boycott.

What I do not like is that the only way they tell the public to adhere to the boycott is by creating issurim that do not exist and declaring that El Al has lost its divine protection and is therefore dangerous. I suspect that they did so because that is the only way the people will listen to the Rabbis. If the Rabbis just say we are negotiating for better terms and nobody should fly El Al until further notice, people would write them off. The only way to get people to listen is by creating an issur. That way I look "not frum" if I do fly El Al and nobody wants to look "not frum".

the real problem si that people fall for it. People let themselves be manipulated like that and actually believe there is a real issur to fly El Al and therefore switch their tickets to other airlines that are even more mechalel shabbos than El Al.

The reason not to fly El Al is not because of any issur involved, but because it is the only way to acheive a successful boycott which might lead to a change in El Al policy.