El Al
 El Al  (Airline)    | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Headquarters | Ben-Gurion Airport, Lod, Centre District, Israel |
| Type | commercial |
| Staff | 6,000 |
El Al (meaning skywards in Hebrew) is an Israeli airliner founded in 1948. It is known as the flag carrier of Israel, a term given to the most important airliner of a country, receiving government support. Being headquartered in one of the most fortified airports in the world, the airline - separately from the airport - has a permanent security detail both on board and at other airports located of mostly Shin Bet agents.[1][2] Being the flag carrier of Israel, the company has the remarkable reputation to be the only one in the world to run with missile-defence systems.[3] It only serves Kosher-meals and does not run on the Jewish Shabbat or Jewish holidays.
Contents
Formation
Chaim Weizmann was planned to scheduled to fly back to Israel during the 1948 Palestine war, but being hit by the embargo surrounding the war, a C-54 military plain was repainted in Israeli colours with a text of the "El Al/Israel National Aviation Company" with extra fuel tanks and flew directly to Ben-Gurion Airport.
During the middle-eastern 'tense' 1950s the company was most noticeably known as the small Israeli airliner known for running operations for Israeli Intelligence, airlifting Jewish immigrants from Iran, Jemen and Iraq. Nazi war figure Adolf Eichmann was the target of extraordinary rendition 1960. After ditching their use of military planes as aircraft and promoting travel to the US - and being backed by the most right-wing political parties - the company began to become popular and well-known in the Jewish community.[4]
Destinations
The company - known to also fly military supplies with cargo planes for Israeli intelligence - has received criticism for their poor state of the aircraft, which is quite strange for a company with the urge to install anti-missile defence systems. The European Civil Aviation Authority even threatened to blacklist the airline in 2009. The company does not fly to Africa (except South Africa), Every Latino country south of the US, except (Department of French Guiana, Japan, Both parts of Korea, Australia and New-Zealand. El Al blames Saudi-Arabia for not allowing them for using Saudi airspace.
Incidents
The supreme court of Israel dismissed a claim from an civil rights group following dozens of complaints during the 2010s remarking the profiling of Arab passengers in 2014. The FBI works in cooperation with Shin Bet members to interrogate and check flight-lists. Some times even removing passengers from planes or at airports for undisclosed reasons. It had only been the target of a hijack 'once', in 1968. The incident did not result in any deaths, being the longest hijacking in history. Every other terrorist-related incident was resolved by Shin Bet members.
Drug Smuggling
Israeli police arrested senior El Al personnel, a Shin Bet member, and two other men after discovering their involvement in a cocaine deal using El-Al planes in 2018.
Covert operations
El Al flight 402 was shot down by Bulgaria. Anti-aircraft systems shot down the civilian plane en route from London to Lod with a stop in Vienna after it entered Bulgarian airspace. Israel and Bulgaria never agreed why the plane entered Bulgarian airspace and diverted from their route by approximately hundred miles. Much remains unclear.
El Al Flight 1862 crashed into a high-rise neighbourhood in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam in 1992, known as the Bijlmer disaster Multiple witnesses, including police and firemen told the investigators of the Dutch Prosecutor Service they saw "Israeli security agents" on site, some recited the badge, and a police officer recognizing them from shooting practise. Some even said within 8 minutes, they assaulted Dutch police after being denied entry to the site. They did gain access tot the site - being at multiple points the only one allowed to pick-up debris, but not aiding in salvaging or aiding firemen. Nobody is clear how and why. The investigation revealed the plane had Sarin on board but a full cargo list was never released. Many first responders and citizens developed health problems similar to Gulf-War syndrome. Officially a connection with the plane crash had never been made.
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:The plot to blow up El Al Flight 016 | Article | 6 April 2019 | Marianne Colloms Dick Weindling | Two weeks after Nezar Hindawi's trial, French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac was interviewed on tape by Arnaud de Borchgrave, the editor of the Washington Times. When he was asked about the attempt to blow up the El Al plane Chirac said he had been told by the West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher that they believe it had been set up by Mossad agents to destabilise Syria's Assad regime. |
References
- ↑ https://www.jpost.com/International/El-Al-using-Shin-Bet-for-Berlin-airport-checks
- ↑ https://jr.co.il/articles/elal2.txt
- ↑ https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/israeli-airline-missile-defenses-israel-us-carriers-wont/story?id=24684650
- ↑ https://www.elal.com/en/About-ELAL/About-ELAL/History/Pages/Decade-50.aspx
