Bigotry was on full display in Turkey after a medical emergency on an EL AL flight led to an unintended diversion to Antalya. Incredibly, the Turkish airport then refused to refuel the EL AL aircraft…
Turkish Airport Refuses To Refuel EL AL 737-800
EL AL flight 5102 departed Warsaw, Poland (WAW) for Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV) on Sunday, June 30, 2024. The flight was operated by a Boeing 737-800 with registration code 4X-EKA (review of this particular aircraft here in business class…I flew on it in 2009).
A medical emergency onboard en route required a diversion and the flight diverted to Antalya, Türkiye (AYT), landing about 2.5 hours after departure.
The plane sat on the ground for three hours during which airport ground staff purportedly refused to refuel the jet and passengers were not allowed off the aircraft. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been strained since the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel by Hamas. All direct flights between the two nations have been suspended.
Unable to refuel, the 737 took off again and flew to nearby Rhodes, Greece (RHO)–155 miles away–to refuel (Tel Aviv was only 410 miles away from Antalya, but I suspect there was not enough fuel to safely complete the journey).
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The sad thing here is that if Turkey truly feels that Israel cannot defend itself from the terrorists who have infiltrated the people of Gaza, it could have at least shown love. It could have helped the passengers onboard and demonstrated that mercy and peace will change hearts.
Instead, it puts up silly propaganda displays that tell half-truths (i.e. lies) about the current war in Gaza.
> Read More: How Turkey Is Telling The Story Of The War In Gaza
Turkey is an enigmatic member of NATO: Incirlik Air Base is a critical military outpost yet Turkey appears blinded by its religious allegiance to terrorists in Gaza and its continued refusal to take responsibility for the Armenian Genocide a century earlier.
Shame on Antalya Airport and whoever made the call not to refuel this jet. What disgusting bigotry guided by deeply-rotted intolerance…not love…
You appear to be confusing the actions of ground staff and the state of Turkey
I did no such thing: I did point to the bigotry displayed by the airport and the dishonest propaganda of the Turkish state and how there is a common link of blind religious solidarity.
Turkey under Erdogan has been the opposition to a variety of Muslim-majority countries — primarily on the opposite side of the Saudi-Emirati-Egyptian gang despite the rulers all being Sunni Muslims. Erdogan’s Turkey has also been the opposition to Syria’s Shia Muslim ruler.
There are airport workers across Europe who have had relatives who have been killed or seriously injured by the IDF in recent months. If they want to refuse to provide unscheduled and previously non-contracted service to belligerent-supporting parties, it’s probably better for all that they do, rather than increase the risk of deadly sabotage or of being falsely accused of sabotage or other crimes.
That’s not how it works, that’s not how any of it works. There are also many people whose relatives have been killed by Palestinians – are you ok with them also not performing services? By the way – why did you suddenly jumped to “sabotage” when describing this particular demographic? Are you trying to say that Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular are natural born terrorists? Sounds like you’re the bigot.
Coming from you that is ironic. Now, please go heal thyself.
Also ironic is your suggestion that it I who am bigoted against Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular.
…… as if you really care about bigotry against Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular.
The actions of the airport staff fall inline with the dictates and policies of the Islamist tyrant Erdogan and his ruling party.
Times of Israel 30 June 2024
“ All direct flights between Israel and Turkey were canceled shortly after the war against the Hamas terror group broke out on October 7, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has backed Hamas in the war, in which Israel has sought to topple Hamas as Gaza’s de facto government, to secure the release of the hostages taken on October 7, and to prevent the Gaza Strip from posing a security threat to Israel going forward.
Erdogan hosted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul in April, and in May, he said that more than 1,000 members of Hamas were being treated in Turkish hospitals.”
The airline was allowed by the Turkish government to land for a medical emergency, medical assistance of some sort was apparently provided, the plane was supposedly in process of getting approval for unscheduled fuel delivery, and then the airline decided to leave Turkey to go to Greece and was helped in doing so as quickly as the airline wanted to do it.
I have a lot of criticism for Turkey — going back to even when the Turkish military and economic elite were in position to treat Erdogan and his kind as pariahs — but I am not sure this situation with the emergency medical assistance landing is one of them. If an Aeroflot plane made an emergency medical assistance landing in Poland or Ukraine or California, I am not sure it would go any better and faster for the plane, crew and all passengers wanting to get to their originally ticketed destination from those places.
That is quite a generous interpretation of the events.
EL AL said:
I realize that Turkey later stated that fuel was coming…but that seems a different issue than the ground staff at Antalya refusing to refuel the plane with fuel already available on the ground.
Just because fuel is available doesn’t mean the fuel is freely and legally immediately available to all.
I can’t go pump out someone else’s fuel from their gas tank without the necessary approvals just because I want to get the rest of my own vehicle’s occupants to their original destination as fast as possible after a diversion for an emergency hospital drop off of another.
The big distinction here, though, is that the refueling staff purportedly made clear they would refuse to fill the tanks, due to the aircraft being Israeli.
When statements can’t necessarily be taken at face-value because there is a propaganda war being waged with clickbait-esque and “woe is me/my people” polarization games meant to try to advance a propaganda war so as to do more than just that, perhaps the measure of the situation should be on what was delivered and not — at least yet/currently — in dispute.
El Al understandably has quite the history of being sort of paranoid about who comes near its planes. And El Al and Shin Bet have some history of taking a racist approach about how they deal with some passengers and possible service providers. Even otherwise, if it was an Iran Air flight to or from a shut down BEY that had a medical emergency passenger, would TLV do any better? If I were to ever be on such an Iran Air flight, I would probably be thinking about ending up sort of like a passenger on the Iran Air 655 flight.
I would hope Israel would do better, but I guess we can only speculate about that.
The medical case seems to have been attended to well. Refueling the aircraft was not a medical case. El Al is also a state operated carrier, I’d personally wouldn’t put 100% faith in what they say.
I told you many times Turkey is a 3rd world sh#thole and you defend them because of their historical content. Now you see they hate Jews and are racists. Anyone supporting them in any way or doing business with them is condoning it. It’s another Ukraine filled with modern Nazis and a drain on the United States.
Islamo-Facists comes to mind.
The Muslim Brotherhood was greatly influenced by Hitler and Nazi ideology. They worked hand-in-hand in the Middle East and in the Balkans,
We see a similar pattern of influence with the new Islamo-Ottoman-Facists; Turkey.
While there are various problems with the so-called Muslim Brotherhood, it was seeded with an anti-racist ideology rooted in the idea that religion trumps ethnicity. In some ways that too is a problem, but there are also Jewish Israelis who believe religion trumps ethnicity and such people too have taken a problematic approach to people of other religious and ethnic backgrounds than themselves.
Let’s keep in mind that the deceased terrorist Rabbi Meir Kahane had more fans in Israel at this time last year than he had 20-30 years ago. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he has more fans now than even at this time last year.
You’ve confused the so-called Muslim Brotherhood for Netanyahu’s allies in India — particularly the RSS and its spawn the BJP in India. Modi and his fellow travelers in the RSS were literally inspired by the Nazis and would praise Hitler repeatedly. The Hitler Youth were the RSS’s model, Nowadays, Modi’s India sends weapons to Israel for use to kill Palestinians.
The world revolves around politics outside the USA. Even inside the USA with your race or religion, etc.
Divert to the nearest suitable airport for an emergency.
In this case suitability was lacking.
Shame on them?! Hell no! I’m glad they refused to refuel!
Shameful this is unacceptable of any Nato member! To allow yes allow any ground crew to behave in this manner is just wrong. It’s time for all Nato countries to wake up and smell the stench emanating from this behavior. All of humanity needs to come to the realization the emergence of a new world order that say its ok to act in a manner it deems appropriate. Remember all actions and deeds come with consequences and should never be at the expense of what is right and wrong. Careful all countries who say what is wrong can be right for this is the very definition of hypocrisy and I’m sorry not what any one system should be condoning.
No one inside NATO is more dangerous to the NATO alliance than Trump. While Erdogan’s Turkey is not all that reliable as a NATO ally, Turkey has played better with us against Russia than Hungary has. Alienating Turkey from NATO would be a bad hit on NATO’s conventional capabilities to counter Putin’s Russia. It would even be a cut on US nuclear capabilities that are forward stationed.
The majority of Israelis are active duty, reserve, or former military personnel who can be reactivated. Turkey would be aiding and abetting genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes by allowing the jet to refuel and transport suspected partisans to Israel. Even vehement anti islamists recognize the state of Israel and the majority of its citizens who support the military are engaging in unjustified genocide against the Palestinians. All true Conservatives and Nationalists support Palestinians not in the Americas or Europe but support them in their homeland. All politicians who support Israel only due so because they are bought and paid for and threatened by Zionists who control the money and pull the strings.
That’s reaching. You’re an ideological zealot.
I hope the ground staff who refused to refuel, due to their personal or political views of Israel, are shown systematic discrimination. Human behaviour is at an all time low with some nationalities. Invading another Country, killing and raping women and no sympathy. Hatred of Israel is nothing new, protecting your Country and Citizens is nothing new either. These employees should be laid off or fired.
Any such involved employees are unlikely to be laid off or fired. From near the NW corner of Europe to the SW corner of Europe to the SE corner of Europe, the local publics are very uneasy with the massive amount of death and destruction being unleashed on Gaza. Even the Islamophobic Europeans are wondering when they will be paying the price with more refugees and more terrorist attacks by non-state actors. In this context, the idea of a business in Turkey firing a supposedly “pro-Palestinian” refusenik for being a “pro-Palestinian” refusenik without sparking a lot of domestic controversy over the firing is pretty low.
If the job requires the local workers to do something they object to, then they are not meeting the requirements of the job and should be refreshed on the job requirements. If they still refuse then they should be let go for not performing their job.
Bigotry begets bigotry. Forcefully annexing Palestinian lands by Israel doesn’t seem to be bigotry to you. Nor does killing thousands of Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers in the last 20 years.
Of course far be it that you mention the Israel right whingers support to Hamas over the last decades. Wouldn’t serve your talking points.
It’s a complex subject, but as long as you choose to be dishonest and not mention the bigotry that Palestinians have suffered from, you will remain a hypocrite.
History is always complex but your reply is just as biased as my assessment of Israel’s right, at this moment, to defend itself no matter the civilian harm. If you want to reduce this to Israel “forcefully annexing Palestinian lands” and “killing thousands of Palestinian children“ then there is no sense in discussing this further.
So you agree that Israel has illegally sent settlers into Palestinian territory and that it’s bigotry.
Your bias is clearly showing. Where everything Israel does is gold. You criticise Hamas but not the Israelis who provided support to them over the years?
The irony of the Jews behaving like Nazis is immense. When you push a people too far, they will react.
No, I don’t support Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
But the idea that Israelis are behaving like Nazis (as if they are targetting Palestinians for genocide rather than trying to defend themselves as every nation does at war…and yes, it is not a simple black/white good versus evil but two bad alternatives, one of which is worse) is beyond reprehensible and reveals a bigoted hostility that is so counterproductive toward finding peace or even making rational sense.
If Pakistan invaded Kashmir and launched rockets from Islamabad, India would have every right to level Islamabad to rubble, even if every woman and child died. And if you really want to argue that Israel is occupying “Palestinian land” and therefore Hamas has a right to fight its “open-air prison” then it is a fight to the death and I support the liberal democracy, not the theocratic fiefdom.
You seem to be forgetting MULTIPLE peace attempts by MULTIPLE Israeli governments. Also, you seem to be forgetting who started this whole thing, just as soon as Israel was established, all the way back in the 1940’s – it wasn’t the Israeli government. Israel was attacked over and over again, that’s why decisive actions are needed right now and more than ever. Sadly, there is some collateral damage (although not nearly as much as some antisemites would want there to be, this wouldn’t fit their talking points), but that’s expected when Hamas uses civilians and children as human shields. Let’s just be clear and proper with our facts, even Hamas-backing UN (let’s not forget how many UN workers turned out to be Hamas terrorists) said that there is absolutely no risk of famine and that the number of “victims” that the Hamas Ministry of Health was propagating turned out to be more than doubled versus real numbers…However, people like you just hate Jews and that’s why you keep spewing such propaganda (which actually falls in line with ruSSian propaganda, since terrorists tend to stick together). But guess what? You can cry us a river to the sea, Israel will always be free.
And to think that Israeli firefighters risked their lives in to help those pigs after an earthquake…Well, at least they won’t get their 77 virgins since “shukr” (gratefulness) is a virtue they clearly don’t have.
Glad to see the pushback in the comments (though Matt’s replies are akin to sticking your fingers in your ears and going ‘lalalala’). Funny how his entire focus is on fuel and not the person’s medical issue which caused the diversion in the first place – which Turkish officials treated and allowed. Meanwhile, Matt (who appears may suffer from some RFK-like brainworm) is glad to pay for Germany’s war crimes and genocide with the blood of any number of Palestinians. Really sad, sick and disturbing to read. Also, I couldn’t locate the bigotry despite the article title ? Turkey and Israel suffer from poor relations – unless the implication is that any action or protest against Israel is akin to one against Jews. Not that we should expect the airline-points-blogger guy to understand the difference.
If you want to see a different example of bigotry and how Matt responds to it, check out the story of the woman who attacked her boyfriend over lost AirPods (https://liveandletsfly.com/girlfriend-assault-dfw/)
You’ll see how outright racist and cruel comments are ignored by Matt, who instead saves his scorn for hidden resort fees.
I condemn all such bigotry and I’m not going to waste my breath responding to deplorables who want to make gross race-based generalizations about blacks or other people of color.
@ET: Your condescending comment is laughably stupid and exposes the very bigotry that I condemn that drives so much hate (i.e. Israel has no claim to the land). The fact that you blame Hamas terrorism on the Nazi regime from 80-90 years earlier is so pathetic, but hardly a surprise for those blinded by intolerance and a double-standard no other nation is held to.
Is an ET or a Matthew really wrong upon closer look it’s more about what one group alone has done that has reignited the many wrongs and no it’s never ok to say it’s justified either. Palestinian people need to take responsibility to themselves first and not allow to be manipulated by one group or country because I bet empirical data shows it won’t work EVER! No one would ever accept the harm inflicted to the children and the elderly alongside the mothers and fathers is what is most important to agree in the first place and should be the bases to establish the framework to a lasting peace. Being a member of any community does bear responsibility and sometimes any random third party can have conflicting viewpoints to one’s own core beliefs but the moment you force that on others is recipe for trouble that is why I said good is good and wrong is wrong and the moment anyone of us spews one sided rhetoric it sets us up for confrontations that history has shown will lead to the further destruction of humanity’s core values of what is right and what is wrong and it’s the same for the majority. JDR
Some more wildly bad reporting here from Matthew who has failed to do any due diligence. The ground workers were awaiting the LEGALLY REQUIRED EXEMPTION before they could refuel the plane and the El Al pilots chose to take off anyway.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2024/07/01/turkish-official-denies-claim-that-israeli-flight-was-refused-fuel-after-emergency-landing/