A WOMAN has been paid damages by EasyJet after she was asked to move seat TWICE by two ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who did not want to sit next to a female.
Melanie Wolfson, 38, was flying from Tel Aviv to London when a man and his son requested she move to another row despite her paying extra for an aisle seat.
Strict ultra-Orthodox Jewish people practice gender separation where men and women are kept apart in certain settings – including on transportation.
Melanie, a British-Israeli fundraiser, says she was “insulted and humiliated” and refused to move simply because of her gender.
She told Haaretz: “I would not have had any problem whatsoever switching seats if it were to allow members of a family or friends to sit together, but the fact that I was being asked to do this because I was a woman was why I refused.”
However, Melanie eventually decided to move as she was worried the row would cause the flight to be delayed.
A member of the cabin crew also offered her a free hot drink to swap with another man in a row in front of her.
But despite making a formal complaint to EasyJet, three months after the incident she was once again asked to move by ultra-Orthodox men while travelling with the same airline.
During the second row, which happened in October 2019, Melanie refused to budge until two other female passengers agreed to swap with the religious men.
Melanie claims no staff member on board intervened or defended her right to stay in her seat
And when the airline did not respond to a second formal complaint, she took legal action against them last year.
Her lawyers argued that EasyJet was in violation of Israel’s anti-discrimination law during both rows while their planes were grounded in Tel Aviv.
The laws prohibit discrimination against customers on the basis of religion, race, nationality, land of origin, gender, sexual orientation, political views or personal status.
According to the lawsuit, several staff members told Melanie that women were frequently asked to move seat by ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.
She made a claim of £15,000 against the airline – although it’s unclear how much she was paid when she won her case.
The company promised to put staff through anti- discrimination training.
EasyJet said yesterday: “EasyJet is aware of the issue where some male passengers say they are uncomfortable sitting next to women, who are not in their immediate family, due to their religious beliefs and as a result request that a crew member ask female passengers to move seats.
“EasyJet does not believe that female passengers should be asked to move seats simply based on their gender.
“The airline has a policy to politely inform any customer who raises this request that this will not be accommodated.
“Unfortunately, according to Melanie Wolfson this policy was not followed in her case.
“EasyJet is committed to tackling any discrimination on flights.
“We take this very seriously and in addition to compensating Ms Wolfson for her experience, EasyJet intends to implement additional crew training and renew our crew guidelines in order to prevent these incidents from happening in the future.”
