A German court has ruled that Kuwait Airways can refuse to transport Israeli citizens without running afoul of German anti-discrimination law.
The case involved a man who had purchased a ticket from Frankfurt to Bangkok via Kuwait City on Kuwait Airways in 2016. Upon learning that he intended to travel with an Israeli passport, Kuwait Airways refused him transport on its own aircraft, but offered to get him to Bangkok on another airline.
The man sued for discrimination.
Court Rules for Kuwait Airways
While carefully stressing it was not evaluation the logic of the Kuwaiti law, the Frankfurt-based court held:
- Their evaluation did not consider “whether the law of a foreign country … makes sense” from a German legal view
- The Israeli could not be compensated for the airline’s action because it was not discriminatory under German law
- “Germany’s anti-discrimination law prohibits, among other things, discrimination because of race, ethnicity or confession. Discrimination because of citizenship is, by contrast, not covered by the law.
Put simply, the court held that German anti-discrimatinon law does not protect people based upon citizenship. Because a Jewish or Israeli person could travel on a German or U.S. passport and because a Kuwait Airways’ employees faced severe repercussions for allowing a passenger traveling on an Israeli passport to fly, refusing to transport the plaintiff was reasonable.
Several news sources refer to a “stopover” in Kuwait, while others suggest the man was merely connecting in Kuwait. That’s absolutely key in my mind, though I don’t think it would have altered the German court’s ruling. It’s one thing to connect in a country while quite another to try to enter it. In the case of Kuwait, however, it does not recognize Israel and therefore does not recognize an Israeli passport as a valid travel document.
Angry Reaction
Nathan Gelbart, lawyer for the Israeli, condemned the court’s ruling–
This is a shameful verdict for democracy and for Germany in general. This verdict cannot stand.
Uwe Becker, the mayor of Frankfurt, also criticized the decision–
An airline that practices discrimination and anti-Semitism by refusing to fly Israeli passengers should not be allowed to take off or land in Frankfurt.
CONCLUSION
This is a different case than the Fifth Freedom case in the USA. In that case, the U.S. Department of Transportation sided with an Israeli passport holder after Kuwait Airways denied him transport on a New York to London flight operated by Kuwait Airways.
I know politics and statecraft are complicated. Even so, it just strikes me as pathetic that a willing customer would not be able to secure passage on an airline that is struggling financially. Entering Kuwait is a whole different matter, but transiting–it seems to me–is hardly a threat to Kuwaiti national security.
Countries discriminating against even international transit passengers on the basis of passport-issuing authority of the passport being presented by a passenger is routine in the world.
Unless a passenger has valid international travel documents for transit and/or entry to a country on a ticketed itinerary, denying passengers travel on the route is the sensible thing to do for an airline/airline employee that doesn’t want to end up in jeopardy (in terms of employment or money or both).
While I am no fan of denying Israeli passport users entry and transit allowances anywhere, governments encouraging and even requiring discrimination based on citizenship is the norm around the world. The US does this daily, and so does the UK. Israel does it too.
i think the airline system does not have the option for Israelis because of the Kuwaiti law. I am not really sure what the airline can do in this case. But I am actually pleasantly surprised that the airline accommodated the pax on a different airline. That is actually very kind of them. To contrary Lufthansa would never do that. Check out their facebook page, full of complaints from third world citizens who could not board the flight and never was given an alternative offer even if the Lufthansa agent was incorrectly interpreting the complicated visa rules.
In any case, I don’t see your reasoning of ” but transiting–it seems to me–is hardly a threat to Kuwaiti national security.” would fly far because people get discriminated based on nationality all the time when traveling even if they are willing to pay. It is not the case only for Kuwait and its airline but it applies to all airlines. If the common sense of who is less risky to transit is applied to let people travel, you know it is hard to draw the lines and gate agents will do all sorts of things. That is why we have rules in place and apparently it is the choice for Kuwait and I don’t see them changing it in near future. I wonder though what QR, EY, EK, ME, RJ etc do in practice with Israeli passport holders…WOuld have been nice if you compared. It would make your argument stronger if you singled out Kuwait for a valid reason.
On what basis do you determine that Kuwait Airways is financially struggling? Lucky and many commentators complained that Kuwait and Saudi national carriers do not offer alcoholic beverages and premium cabins to attract tourists. Both countries do not allow tourists on their soil, unless you have sponsors from employees and those who work and live there. They never need revenues from tourists, due to the influx of petro dollars though less so today. Flights from Kuwait City to London are regularly full but only one third full or less to NYC but they still fly. When you live and work in one of the six wealthy gulf states, you will witness their living standards that are much higher than those of Western developed countries. Kuwait Airways offered him a flight on a different carrier : What was his damage or was it just his grievance? Kuwait does not recognize Israel. Private schools in Kuwait are required to black out/ redact any photos and info relating to Israel in the textbooks, which are mostly imported from American publishing houses, and the Ministry of Education staff will inspect schools to strictly enforce the law. It has nothing to do with national security. It is purely Arab sanction. The six Gulf states are more fearful of their other poverty stricken Arab brothers threaten their monarchy than Israel.
Que in 3, 2, 1, a mysterious explosion of a Kuwaiti airliner in mid flight. ( I don’t condone violence, but hey, I live in mass shooterville, USA)
Curiously, I was banned from the blog when I dared to comment on the Secret Flying blog about how this is ultimately discrimination based upon nationality (ironic, as Israel gave strategic support during Desert Storm to aid in the liberation of Kuwait from the invading Iraqi forces.)
It is an unambiguous discriminatory law in Kuwait based upon the fact that they do now want to have a Jewish State in the Middle East.
And, what can anyone say about a country that commits genocide on 6 million Jews, and a judge says, “you know, there is nothing technically wrong in what they are doing to the (presumably Jewish) citizens of the only Jewish State in the world.” In a way, Germany created Israel by its attempt at extermination.
Rambling, but I am curious as to your thoughts.
While I strongly disagree with Kuwaiti policy, I think the German court took a reasonable view interpreting the legality of Kuwait Airways’ action. They made it clear they are NOT judging the merits of Kuwaiti laws, they are judging only whether citizenship can be a form of discrimination (so resorting to holocaust references like docntx above is not appropriate or helpful here).
This is a political rather than a legal issue for Germany. If, politically, they disagree with Kuwaiti policy on not recognising Israel and hence Kuwait Airways’ policy on transporting Israeli citizens then the German government should make the choice to bar Kuwait Airways from flying there (as the mayor of Frankfurt proposes). Since the passenger could have flown the route had he had any other passport this was not clear discrimination based on religion (although the roots of the policy in Kuwait are discriminatory).
Finally, I find it incredible that an Israeli citizen would choose to book a ticket on Kuwait Airways, via Kuwait, after all the recent publicity surrounding their policies. While he may have possibly been unaware when he booked the ticket the decision to sue instead of accepting transport on a different airline suggests this may have been a political stunt.