No More Special Exclusive VIP Treatment For Haredi Rabbis At Airport, Government Is Forced To Say

In response to a petition filed against it in the High Court of Justice in January, the Government of Israel has finally decided to end the special VIP treatment top haredi rabbis get at Ben Gurion International Airport – special VIP treatment non-haredi rabbis and regular Israelis could not get.

Above: A group of top hasidic rebbes and their aides meeting in an emergency session of the Agudat Israel's Council of Torah Sages in September 2012 in Israel

No More Special Exclusive VIP Treatment For Haredi Rabbis At Airport, Government Is Forced To Say
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

In response to a petition filed against it in the High Court of Justice in January, the Government of Israel has finally decided to end the special VIP treatment top haredi rabbis get at Ben Gurion International Airport.

The government made the announcement Tuesday, Ha’aretz reported.

Forty-five haredi rabbis – most hasidic rebbes and Sefardi kabbalists – with “significant” followings were allowed to have their personal drivers drive their private cars onto the tarmac right up to  awaiting flights. Border control and customs agents would meet them at the plane.

Regular passengers cannot drive cars onto the airport tarmac, let alone drive up to a plane there.

The haredi rabbis – which included some virulently anti-Zionist haredi rabbis like the leaders of of the extreme anti-Zionist Edah Haredit haredi umbrella organization – were also provided with a special VIP waiting room only for them, and were not required to stand in line for security, customs or border control on arrival or departure.

But the Sha’arei Mishpat Academic Center’s legal clinics petitioned the High Court to stop this practice, which not only favored haredi rabbis over other Israelis, it also excluded Zionist Orthodox and Modern Orthodox rabbis and all non-Orthodox clergy, no matter how famous. None of them were on the airport’s special VIP list, and they all had to stand in line like every other Israeli.

The legal clinics argued that the Israel Airports Authority did not have the authority to permit this discriminatory practice.

It also claimed the list of eligible rabbis appeared to have been compiled without any objective criteria.

“There are no objective criteria. It all boils down to relations between the authority and the United Torah Judaism [UTJ] and Shas religious [haredi political] parties. The duty-free shops [in the airport] are open on the Sabbath and hametz [leavened goods] is sold there over Passover. There are additional reasons why the authority wants to remain in good standing with haredi politicians,” a former senior IAA official told Ha’aretz in January.

Because of the government decision, the haredi rabbis will still be able to get lesser VIP service available to any traveler willing to pay for it – but they will have to pay. This standard VIP service enables travelers who pay for the luxury to go through security, border control and customs in a special VIP lounge rather than waiting in line with hundreds of other people. These VIPs – often famous Israeli musicians and actors, and sometimes politicians – are then taken to their flight in a special private VIP shuttle. But their aides don't get to come with them, unless they are on the smae fight and have paid for VIP service, and they can't have their drivers pick them up and drop them off on the tarmac directly at the plane.

But the airport authority also said that at times when large crowds of haredim are expected arrive to greet or see off a VIP haredi rabbi, the airport may have to make special arrangements.

Only time will tell if the government and the airport authority honestly follow these guidelines, or if they instead do what successive Likud Party and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu governments have done with other High Court cases involving haredim, and skirt and evade whatever ruling or agreement is reached after first promising to uphold it.

Related Posts:

“X-Ray Rabbi” Dodges Customs, Causes Special Status For VIP Haredi Rabbis To Come Into Question.

Arguably Illegal VIP Treatment For Haredi Rabbis At Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport Exceeds That Of Rock Stars And The Rich And Famous.

Comments

[Charedi]

All I can say is that the complainers are acting like little kids, complaining that if I can't have what you have, then you shouldn't have it too.

Either they could ask for the same status, and if not why stop some people from feeling like kings?
You don't really gain anything.

[jancsibacsi]

I am very afraid that theese rebbes will loose their way if they are left alone in the airport, oy gevalt

[David]

+++But the airport authority also said that at times when large crowds of haredim are expected arrive to greet or see off a VIP haredi rabbi, the airport may have to make special arrangements.+++

They can do this at quiet times like 3am. They shouldn't be there during peak times when they will bother others. If there are no suitable flights at such times they can do a private charter - they have loads of cash.

[Allan]

If anyone deserves free VIP treatment at the airport - and everywhere else in Israel - I would give it first and foremost to ”Gold star” families. i.e Close relatives of those who have given their lives while serving in the IDF in defense of the State of Israel. No widow of a fallen IDF soldier should ever have to wait in long lines with her children while some rabbi sweeps by her and gets the royal treatment.

Among others worthy of VIP treatment and going to head of the line, I’d include wounded veterans, victims of terrorism ,Holocaust survivors and righteous gentiles recognized by Yad Veshem.

As for rabbis, what an ideal opportunity for them to demonstrate the modesty they always preach by waiting in line with the rest of us.

[Abracadabra]

Allan - I couldn't agree with you more!

[dh]

What if they are in the VIP van with, oh, say, Lady Gaga and Madonna?

[A. Nuran]

Charedi,

Turn it around. Why should anyone get special privileges, cost the rest of us a lot of money and get to make a mockery of security? These evil old men are politically connected leeches. They contribute nothing. And we treat these tyrannical old frauds like kings.

Give VIP treatment to the families of IDF soldiers who have died in the line of duty. Let the Kugel Captains stand in line with the rest of us

[jake]

Don't know what it cost now but I always get VIP service. I just pay for it.

[Rodin]

It's all about the Rebbe illusion.
If you treat the Rebbe like an ordinary person,
then the blind sheep following them may, God forbid,
actually realize that they really are.
Aaron and Zalmen actually put their pants on one leg at a time.
This perception is terrifying to the Rebbe cults.

[Michael-Meir]

Allan said it well. Some Israelis do deserve special treatment. Because they've earned it. The hard way. Through sacrifice.

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

The one good thing about Schneerson is that he never went anywhere.

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

Tonight is the 6th anniversary of the Rubashkin Mountain Dew Party!

http://www.vosizneias.com/22063/2008/11/04/
postville-ia-party-celebration-after-the-release-of
-rubashkin-is-a-public-chilul-hashem/

[Nachum]

"Either they could ask for the same status, and if not why stop some people from feeling like kings?"

Maybe because they genuinely believe in equality? I know being a charedi means you can never see people as having good, interest-free motives, but such people actually exist.

[Moshe MS]

Equality? When the pope comes to Israel does he ride in the paid VIP service or is he whisked off by private car?

If a leader of a foreign religious group receives such a service, how much more so the leaders of (authentic) Jewish groups be it Zionist or not should receive ULTRA VIP service.

I don't care if the conservative Rabbi's receive it to, as long as they have a large enough following and in their circles it is not respectful of them to wait in lines. Most conservative and reform leaders are more of the CEO / Director type and do not usually receive respect from their followers.

When the Rebbe's enter a room everyone stands for them, but when a reform rabbi enters nobody even realizes. Just like the rabbi of many small congregations

[Garnel Ironheart]

And this time the government will listen to the High Court, just like all the other times?

[Sarek]

Moshe MS - are you for real? Just come out and say it: you don't think Conservative or Reform Rabbis deserve the title of rabbi because they're goyim in disguise. But all "real" rabbis deserve all the bowing and scraping they can muster, right?

[Moshe from NJ]

@Moshe MS - When Jim Jones or David Koresh entered a room their followers stood for them too. It didn't make them right, and it didn't entitle them to jump ahead of me in the security line.

Same thing in NY with cars with VAS plates with bearded rabbis being chauffeured by their acolytes, driving on the shoulder of the road and pretending to be more entitled than the rest of us.

[Alter Kocker]

Why does Israel insist on treating these monkeys like they are royalty. I have come to the conclusion that the country is full of masochists, allowing the Haredim to mistreat the nation, in some cases denying its right to exist, stealing from the treasury, giving in to their retarded demands, when collectively they are worth less than cow feces. The only reason I'd want their rabbis on a tarmac is to shove them through a running jet engine.

[za]

shmarya-
your caption on the photo is so wrong on so many levels - it is hilarious.
you are so clueless. can you even identify 5 people in that photo.
you pretend to know, but you have zero comprehension of the people you write of.
you only have hate.

[Alter Kocker]

I can identify 13 identically dressed individuals with identical headgear, glasses, beards and blank looks on their faces. Monkeys all.

[Michael-Meir]

The pope is entitled to special treatment because he is a head of state.

[jake]

Ah it would be a hitch of a time to have a car drive onto the tarmac. They no longer use moveable staircases at Natbag. The planet's into the gate and one of those tunnel things connects from the terminal. It is a hitch to take the external steps.

Pay for the service and they pick you up at the gate in a golf cart, take your passports to immigration for you on the line restricted to air crew,pick up your suitcases with you an walk past customs. Viola your a rebbe.

[jake]

Moshe,

Those VAS plates are worth gold.
But some of those Hatzolah volunteers are incompetent. Others are great.