The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reversed its controversial ban on American airlines flying to Israel late last night.
The agency released a statement explaining:
The FAA has lifted its restrictions on U.S. airline flights into and out of Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport by cancelling a Notice to Airmen it renewed earlier today. The cancellation is effective at approximately 11:45 p.m. EDT.
Before making this decision, the FAA worked with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the Government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation.
Although the ban was lifted, thousands of people traveling to and from Israel were stranded in both Istanbul, Turkey and Paris, France. Some Israeli passengers were concerned at being stranded in Turkey where pro-Gaza sentiment is widespread and in Paris where just days earlier the Jewish community was violently harassed.
A similar move was made by European airlines though some continued flying into Israel.
“The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it ‘strongly recommends’ that airlines should avoid operating to and from Tel Aviv. Even before the announcement, Lufthansa – which includes Swiss, Germanwings and Austrian Airlines – said it had decided to suspend flights to Israel for two days. KLM and Air France also said they had suspended flights ahead of the EASA’s advisory. EasyJet, Air Canada, and Alitalia also said they had cancelled flights.”
A number of European airlines have resumed service to Ben Gurion. The Times of Israel reports, “After American carriers resume their flights to and from Israel, Britain’s easyJet, Italy’s Alitalia and Germany’s Air Berlin follow suit.”
Ben-Gurion remained open and is expecting that American flights will return to their normal schedule by the evening of July 24 local time.
Time magazine reported on some of the related politics.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lobbied Secretary of State John Kerry Tuesday evening to rescind the ban, as Israeli officials argued the American government was giving Hamas a victory. The airport is a mere 50 miles from Gaza, the scene of intense fighting between Hamas fighters and the Israeli military, who are determined to halt the firing of rockets into Israel. Many of the rockets have been intercepted by the U.S.-backed Iron Dome missile shield.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg boarded an El Al flight late Tuesday to protest the FAA’s decision, declaring the airport safer than American counterparts in an interview with CNN Wednesday from Jerusalem. “The fact that one rocket falls far away from this airport, a mile away, doesn’t mean you should shut down air traffic into a country and paralyze the country,” he said.
Hamas, in fact, had declared the closure of Ben Gurion to be a “great victory.” AFP reported:
“The success of Hamas in closing Israeli airspace is a great victory for the resistance, and is the crown of Israel’s failure,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.
Subsequent to the FAA’s reversal, Ha’aretz reported, “Three rockets intercepted over greater-Tel Aviv. Hamas says they fired at Ben-Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv.”
Pressed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Qatar based Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan admitted, “Well, in fact, in this fight, Ben-Gurion Airport is used by military [air jets], so it’s targeted because it’s used by the Israeli air forces.”
[Source: Chris Hoare / Flickr ]