Woman alleges Israeli airline staff humiliated her, deleted her photos, and stripped her half-naked because she was Palestinian-American
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
- A Palestinian-American woman said she was discriminated against by employees of Israel's flagship airline.
- She claims half her clothes were removed and her photos were deleted by airline employees.
- It is now being investigated by the US Department of Transport.
A Palestinian-American journalist who was barred from boarding her flight from Newark to Tel Aviv in July alleged that she was humiliated and discriminated against by employees of Israel's flagship carrier.
Now, the US Department of Transport has opened an investigation into the incident, it confirmed to Insider by email.
The investigation follows a complaint filed by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) on July 31, on behalf of passenger Noor Wazwaz. It was filed less than two weeks after Wazwaz was denied boarding on an El Al Israel Airlines flight on July 18.
The complaint accuses El Al, as well as the US Transportation Security Agency, of discriminating against Wazwaz — a US citizen — on the basis of her Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab backgrounds, according to an ADC news release.
The ADC previously said in a news release announcing the complaint that Wazwaz faced "serious discrimination and harassment," which it said included being forced to undergo "extensive and humiliating searches and questioning, unlike other passengers."
On the day of being barred from a flight, Wazwaz posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, about her experience.
In the video, she said: "They are telling me that because I am Palestinian and I'm flying into Israel, I'm not allowed to take my laptop, any chargers, not even my portable charger, with me on the plane."
She added: "They are worried that someone packed my bag, that I wasn't the one that packed my bag."
—Noor | نور (@nfwazwaz) July 18, 2023
In a thread also posted on X, Wazwaz said she asked an El Al employee explicitly if this interaction happened because she is Palestinian. According to Wazwaz, he responded: "Yes, and you're going to places like Ramallah."
She also claimed that there was an "alert" which showed that her laptop was flagged for potentially containing explosives. Later, she claimed, her shoes were swabbed and caused the same alert.
Wazwaz claimed she was taken into a room for extensive screening, which she said was run by Israeli airline staff.
She wrote: "Took off half my clothes, socks, shoes. Was THOROUGHLY patted down. Head to toe. They swabbed my clothes, my bag, shoes, socks, literally everything."
Wazwaz also claimed that she was documenting the experience on her cellphone when an airline employee "demanded" to look at her photos and videos.
He "proceeded to DELETE my pictures from my phone," she claimed in an X post.
The Palestinian-American journalist said she was later rebooked onto a United Airlines flight to Israel after being denied boarding. But once in Israel, she was subject to additional screening, Wazwaz added.
"This entire experience has taken an immense toll on me," she wrote in an X post on July 18. "For hours I felt so sick, my chest was hurting and my anxiety was at an all-time high."
El Al did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The US Department of Transport confirmed the investigation into the allegation of discrimination against El Al in an email to Insider but offered no further comment.
In a statement, the ADC's National Executive Director Abed Ayoub said: "We believe in the fundamental principle that every individual deserves respect and fair treatment during their travel experience.
He added: "DOT's investigation into Noor's case is a significant step towards ensuring that these values are upheld across the aviation sector."