ELDER OF ZIYON: Qatari columnist dumbfounded at a Jew visiting mosque in Medina

We reported last week about a Jewish Israeli blogger, known as Ben-Tzion, who visited Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia (and elsewhere) without hiding his Jewish identity.

He insists that everyone he met treated him with respect.

The fallout continues in the Arab world, though, and this article in Qatar's Al Sharq is delightfully over the top:

Finally the Zionist dream of reaching Yathrib (Medina) has been achieved

I did not imagine that the day would come when I saw and heard that the people of the Arabian Peninsula, from the sea eastward to the sea in the west, would allow themselves to see a Jewish Israeli walking around freely in this part of the world. I did not imagine that a Jew would enter the sanctuary in Madinah "Yathrib" Since the era of prophecy. I did not imagine that the Saudi political leadership, as well as the senior religious scholars, would allow all their religious beliefs to allow any Jew to reach Medina. where lies Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, along with a number of his companions and wives. No Muslim who believes in God and his messengers has ever heard or heard of a Jew publicly entering  and wandering around the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah and next to his honorable residence.

 The truth is that I did not believe all that was published in the Arab and Israeli press about the entry of a Jew to the city taking pictures next to the tomb of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in the Prophet's Mosque, and I do not know whether he walked in Mecca which is forbidden to them by virtue of the Koran.

I saw a YouTube movie that included pictures of the Prophet's Mosque and the Jewish man in one of the rows among the worshipers. I saw his picture as he walked around the Prophet's Mosque. The Israeli Jew in this corner named Ben Tzion Chadnovsky admits that he is an Israeli Jew and that he entered the Prophet's Mosque with the knowledge of Saudi personalities and that they know his Jewish background and his Israeli nationality. "Our generation must build bridges between Jews and the Arab world once and for all. Saudi Arabia and Israel must stand side by side to achieve the goal of joint peace in the Greater Middle East region in a comprehensive manner," he said.

Of course, Qataris are especially sensitive to this: Saudi Arabia does not allow them to visit because of their perceived pro-Iran tilt. The idea that an Israeli Jew can visit a Muslim holy spot that a Qatari Muslim cannot is (understandably) outrageous to them.

New Delta Airlines partner prevents Jews from Flying

Jordan Sekulow discusses Delta Airlines new partnership with Saudi Arabia Airlines, which prevents Jews and Israeli nationals from flying.

Delta says it won’t ask customers to disclose religion

Delta Airlines announced that it will not ask its customers to disclose their religious affiliation, despite partnering with Saudi Arabian Airlines.
The announcement followed a controversy two months ago when a Delta spokesperson suggested that, because Saudi Arabian Airlines was joining the SkyTeam Alliance, Delta might have to refuse boarding to passengers with Israel stamps on their passports. The Saudi government requires that travelers disclose their religion, and American Jews and others with Israeli stamps in their passports have been refused visas to the country.
At the time, the Delta spokesperson said that the airline “must comply with all applicable laws in every country it serves” because it would face fines if a passenger arrives at a destination without proper documents.
In a letter sent last week to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Delta Senior Vice President Andrea Fischer Newman wrote: “Delta employees do not currently and will not in the future, request that customers declare their religious affiliation. We would also not seek such information on behalf of any SkyTeam partner or any airline.”
Delta officials met with the Wiesenthal Center's Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper at the center's headquarters in Los Angeles to clarify the airline’s policy.
“Delta has now done the right thing, sending a signal to the Saudis that it will not cooperate with Riyadh’s policy of religious apartheid," Cooper said in a statement. "We hope that all other U.S.-based airlines around the world will declare and follow a similar policy. We also urge the Obama administration to lead the way in demanding that the Saudis drop their overt policy of religious discrimination."

No Jews to be Allowed on Delta-Saudi Air Line Flights

According to a Religion News Service report, "Jews and Israelis, or passengers carrying any non-Islamic article of faith, will not be able to fly code-share flights from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia under Delta Air Line's new partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines that is set to begin in 2012."

Back in January of this year, Delta announced that it had struck a deal with the Saudi Arabian airline to join its "SkyTeam" network in 2012 but the details of the deal's implications have only recently been revealed. The Saudi airline is SkyTeam's first member from the Middle East.

According to the dictates of Sharia law by which Saudi Arabia is governed, the kingdom has strict rules for entry. It  prohibits anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport from entering the country, even in transit. There are indications that passengers with Jewish sounding names have been denied visas.

 

Citizens of every country are mandated to obtain visas and sponsors required for entry, but Jews cannot obtain them. Women traveling alone or with other women must be dressed in traditional Islamic garb that comports with Saudi standards of modesty and are prohibited from entering the country without a male chaperone who must meet them at the airport. Moreover, Both Jewish and Christian bibles and non-Islamic religious items may be confiscated upon arrival at the airport.

 

On June 23rd, Delta issued a statement to Religion News Service saying, it "does not discriminate, nor do we condone discrimination against any protected class of passenger in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, or gender", but did not deny the new policy and insisted that it has no control over who may fly to Saudi Arabia.

"Delta must also comply with all applicable laws in every country it serves," adding that passengers are responsible for obtaining the necessary travel documents required for entry. "If a passenger travels without proper documents, the passenger may be denied entry into that country and our airline may be fined," the statement said.

 

Since Delta is a United States carrier, the new policy has created a firestorm of controversy. Religion News Servicereported that Colby M. May, senior counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, said his office is trying to determine if the agreement contravenes U.S. law.

 

"The very idea that there is a common carrier airline service that would deny an American citizen in America access to their services because they are Jewish or have religious items such as a yarmulke, a cross or a priestly collar, is deeply disturbing," May said, adding that, "they have not responded in a way that answers the question. Hopefully they'll do so."

 

Expressing indignation at the Delta policy were representatives of American Jewish organizations. Kenneth Bandler, a spokesman for the American Jewish Committee said, "Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, should be strongly condemned for its despicable discrimination against Jews. For an American company, our nation's values should trump narrow business interests. Delta should be the first to reject Saudi airlines as a SkyTeam member."

Dan Diker, newly elected secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, said he hoped "Delta will not be complicit with what appears to be a demonstrably anti-Semitic and racist policy by Saudi Arabian Airlines."

Delta Saudi flap leaves questions of openness to Jewish flyers

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Saudi government wants you to know: It doesn’t ban visits by Jews.

Whether the Saudis make travel difficult for Jews, particularly when it comes to those who have Israel stamps on their passports or come carrying religious items like tefillin, is another question entirely.

The issue of Saudi policy vis-a-vis Jews emerged last week after World Net Daily, a conservative website, reported that Delta Airlines was enforcing a Saudi ban on Jewish visitors by partnering with Saudi Arabian Airlines. The report sparked a round of angry demands directed at Delta and at the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

"Rumors being circulated via the Internet regarding passenger flight restrictions on Saudi Arabian Airlines are completely false,” the Saudi Embassy said in a two-sentence statement sent last Friday to JTA and other news agencies. “The Government of Saudi Arabia does not deny visas to U.S. citizens based on their religion."

Yet Jewish defense organizations say that in practice, Saudi authorities make it very difficult for Jews to visit the country.

The Delta flap began when a Jewish passenger, Washington attorney Jeffrey Lovitky, asked Delta what the implications were for Jewish passengers of Saudi Arabian Airlines joining the Sky Team Alliance on Jan. 10. The alliance, which includes Delta, facilitates flights on multiple carriers.

The arrangement is not unusual: Other alliances mix U.S. and Saudi carriers.

But Delta’s response touched a nerve when the airline appeared to shuck off any responsibility for Saudi Arabia’s allegedly discriminatory policies.

“While we fully understand and sympathize with your concerns, Delta has no control over the actions of the United States or any foreign country,” Kathy Johnston, a customer care staffer, wrote to Lovitky in an April 28 letter. “If the government of Saudi Arabia engages in discriminatory practices in the issuance of travel documents to U.S. citizens, this is a matter which must be addressed with a local embassy as appropriate or with the U.S. State Department.”

Jewish organizations wondered whether that meant Delta staffers were asking passengers with Jewish-sounding names if they had properly obtained visas to visit the country.

“They've joined in this policy of discrimination,” Kenneth Bandler, a spokesman for the American Jewish Committee, told JTA.

On the Huffington Post, Rabbi Jason Miller of Detroit excoriated the airline for attempting to pass the buck.

“No, it's not Delta's fault that the Saudi government is anti-Semitic, but it doesn't have to go along with it,” he wrote. “It's as if the Saudis are telling Delta that when it comes to Jewish passengers, it's name should become an acronym: "Don't Even Let Them Aboard."

As other media, including Religion News Service, picked up the story, Delta tried to do damage control.

“We, like all international airlines, are required to comply with all applicable laws governing entry into every country we serve,” Trebor Banstetter, a Delta spokesman, wrote in a blog post. “You as passengers are responsible for obtaining the necessary travel documents, such as visas and certification of required vaccinations, and we’re responsible for making sure that you have the proper documentation before you board.”

No one was mollified, and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) asked the Federal Aviation Authority to investigate. 

“I request your investigation into this matter to determine whether Delta Airlines violated U.S. law or regulation and to ensure no U.S. citizen is denied their right to fly solely on the basis of their religion,” he wrote in a letter last Friday.

Within hours, Delta came out with its third statement, this time noting that its arrangement with the Saudi airline was commonplace.

“Delta’s only agreement with Saudi Arabian Airlines is a standard industry interline agreement, which allows passengers to book tickets on multiple carriers, similar to the standard interline agreements American Airlines, US Airways and Alaska Airlines have with Saudi Arabian Airlines,” it said. “All of the three global airline alliances -- Star, which includes United Airlines; Oneworld, which includes American Airlines, and SkyTeam, which includes Delta -- have members that fly to Saudi Arabia and are subject to that country’s rules governing entry.”

Religion News Service subsequently retracted much of its earlier story, noting that it is not Saudi policy to deny entry to travelers with an Israeli stamp in their passports.

The U.S. State Department’s travel advisory for Saudi Arabia warns that reports of such denials persist.

“There have been reports by U.S. citizens that they were refused a Saudi visa because their passports reflected travel to Israel or indicated that they were born in Israel,” it said.

The State Department website also includes lengthy warnings to Americans of Arab origin that they may be subject to intensive questioning by Israel at its crossings and may even be turned away. It also notes that these policies derive from security considerations, and from Israel's complex customs and entry agreements with the Palestinian Authority.

The Anti-Defamation League said that the Saudi policies are especially burdensome for Jewish travelers.

“Saudi Arabia’s past practice of banning travelers with an 'Israel' stamp in their passport from gaining entry into the country runs contrary to the spirit and intent of Delta’s non-discrimination policy,” the ADL said. “While this practice affects all travelers who previously visited Israel, it has a disproportionate impact on Jewish passengers.

"Moreover, Saudi Arabia also bars anyone from bringing into Saudi Arabia religious ritual objects, including religious texts, from any faith other than Islam, effectively banning religiously observant Jews from entering the country.”

The ADL wants all airlines that partner with those that fly to Saudi Arabia to make their practices clear.

In a statement the ADL said, “We expect Delta, and any other American airline which flies to Riyadh or partners with an airline that flies there, to ensure that its passengers -- whatever their faith -- not be discriminated against, and that no American airline in any way enable, or facilitate this discrimination, whatever the regulations of Saudi Arabia.”

Is Delta Airlines Letting Itself Be Hijacked By Religious Bigots? Rabbi Abraham Cooper

An Open Letter to Delta Airlines CEO Richard Anderson:
Pardon me for communicating with you this way, but you fobbed off inquiries by others to your Customer Care e-mail department. Since I represent 400,000 constituent families of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, I thought it would be more appropriate to communicate this way and let the rest of the American people in on an outrageous situation.

What would happen if a leading U.S. carrier voluntarily allows itself to be hijacked by bigots in order to open a new market? For example, what if it entered into an agreement with a foreign airline that would see to it that no blacks or Catholics or gays boarded code-shared flights destined to reach the partner’s home nation?

I think you know the answer.

Yet, that is what Delta Airlines appears to have done when your company announced plans to add Saudi Arabian Airlines to your SkyTeam Alliance. You see, under their rules, they require that Delta ban Jews and holders of Israeli passports from boarding flights from New York or Washington bound for Jeddah.

As a Delta spokesperson Kathy Johnston so elegantly put it to customer Jeffrey Lovitsky:

“Delta must also comply with all applicable laws in every country it serves and by the same token passengers are responsible to obtain the necessary traveldocuments required for entry into another country prior to their day of travel," she wrote. "If a passenger travels without proper documents, the passenger may be denied entry into that country and our airline may be fined. Delta assumes responsibility for ensuring that each passenger boarding our aircraft has the proper documents for travel to their ticketed destination."

We certainly wouldn’t want Delta to be fined for failing to enforce the racist, religious apartheid laws of Saudi Arabia. And our community is certainly deeply appreciative of the advice to contact the U.S. State Department -- which is a polite way of telling us to go away and leave you alone to make your money in peace.

Mr. Anderson, I know that Delta cannot make any sovereign nation change its laws, but did anyone hold a gun to your head to cut this deal? Did you utter a word of protest during your negotiations with your partners over the Judenrein policies of Saudi Arabia? Did you ask Secretary of State Clinton to try to intervene in this matter?

I'll tell you what the Simon Wiesenthal Center is doing. We are drawing a straight line to the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to ask that Congress to check into the deal to see which laws Delta may have broken. But what is already clear is that Delta has broken the trust of American Jewry and degraded the cherished right of Religious freedom.

Mr. Anderson, I will be happy to fly to your Atlanta headquarters to discuss this matter with you but I won’t be flying Delta to get there.

Sincerely,
Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Delta #6340597357

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

US Senator wants to investigate Delta-Saudi Arabian Airways connection

US Senator Mark Kirk (R-Il) has demanded an investigation intoDelta Airlines' new marketing dealwith Saudi Arabian Airlines, pursuant to which Saudi Air has become a member of the Sky Miles program.

Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk wrote Federal Aviation Administration Administrator J. Randolph Babbit Friday and urged him to “determine whether Delta Airlines violated US law or regulation and to ensure no US citizen is denied their right to fly solely on the basis of their religion.”

Kirk was referring to news reports which alleged that as a result of Delta expanding its SkyTeam network of member airlines to include Saudi Arabian Airlines, on flights bound for Saudi Arabia Delta itself would comply with Saudi requirements regarding who can arrive in the country, which could lead to the exclusion of Jews. The SkyTeam expansion was announced in January and is set to begin in 2012.

The charge seems to rest on the need for US passengers to possess a visa to Saudi Arabia in order to board a flight destined to the Gulf state, and Saudi Arabia is widely believed to not grant visas to most Jews as well as people of any faith who have Israeli entry stamps in their passports.

It is common practice for airlines in the same alliance to codeshare on flights and allow customers to transfer frequent flier miles between companies, which critics of the move by Delta charge makes the American airline even more complicit in the Saudi carrier’s practices.

But Trebor Banstetter, a Delta spokesman, emailed The Jerusalem Post a statement saying that in the case of Saudi Arabian Airlines, “Delta does not operate service to Saudi Arabia and does not codeshare with any airline that serves that country. Delta does not intend to codeshare or share reciprocal benefits, such as frequent flier benefits.”

He continued, “Delta’s only agreement with Saudi Arabian Airlines is a standard industry interline agreement, which allows passengers to book tickets on multiple carriers, similar to the standard interline agreements American Airlines, US Airways and Alaska Airlines have with Saudi Arabian Airlines.”

Banstetter did not respond to requests seeking further clarification.

That's pretty similar to a comment that (purported) Delta employee Susan Elliott put on Lisa Graas' blog after Lisa picked up the story from me.

But those assertions have not done a whole lot to quell the outrage. On Friday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center attacked Delta (which also flies to Israel from New York - and in the summer from Atlanta) for allying itself with the Wahhabi Muslim kingdom.

“We call on Delta Airlines to end its partnership agreement with Saudi Arabian Airlines," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Center (pictured left). "Such an agreement de facto amounts to discrimination against Jews and Israelis." Hier said that the Center does not accept Delta’s position that it must comply with the applicable laws of every country and that this a matter to be taken up by the State Department. "This agreement violates all the principles for which the United States stands for," he added.

Rabbi Hier said that at a time where the entire world is focused on the Arab Spring, hoping that it will lead to full freedom and democratic rights, Delta is taking a step backwards by endorsing bigotry and anti-Semitism. He concluded: "You can’t partner with someone then claim, ‘you have nothing to do with it' Would the airline enter into an agreement that barred, blacks, women, or Catholics from flying?"

I saw a similar comment from Rabbi Shmuelly Boteach (sorry, I won't link that because it's behind a paywall) in which he compared Delta's action to an airline agreeing to codeshare with South African Airways during the apartheid era.

Here's Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy with a Muslim reaction to this story.

Let's go to the videotape.



The only one defending Delta that I've seen is a blog post in the Wall Street Journal, which says to blame the Saudis and not Delta.

Saudi Arabia requires a visa for most foreigners entering its country, and the kingdom denies visas to people who a stamp in their passport from Israel. (When applying for a visa, you send in your passport.) Many believe the strict Islamic nation routinely denies visas to people it believes are Jewish. The Saudi visa application asks you to state your religion.

Without a visa, no airline can board a passenger for a flight to that country. Anytime you fly internationally, your documents get checked by the airline before you board. If a visa is required and you don’t have one, the airline can’t fly you there only to have you sent back.

Delta is entering into a partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines through its SkyTeam Alliance, beginning next year. Delta planes don’t actually fly there, but Delta customers will be riding on Saudi Arabian through an interline agreement. (They already do that today through a standard interline agreement.) Delta says it won’t code-share with Saudi Arabian — place its flight code on Saudi flights– and won’t offer reciprical frequent flier benefits. Like any airline, Delta can’t board Saudi-bound passengers without a visa.

It would be the same on Lufthansa or British Airways or Air France flights to Riyadh, or for that matter on their U.S. code-sharing partners–United, US Airways or American. Without a visa, American won’t board you for a flight to London if your ticket connects you to Saudi Arabia. In terms of airline policy, there’s nothing new.

No, there is something new. No US carrier has ever allowed the Saudis (or the Syrians or the Iranians or any other Arab airline other than Jordan or possibly Egypt) into their frequent flier program. It's bad enough people still go to Saudi Arabia. There's no need to give their national airline more business because of it.