
Retired lawyer sues Israeli airline after she was asked to move seat - azuajef
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/renee-rabinowitz-sue-israeli-airline-el-al-orthodox-gender-discrimination
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atonse
What I don't get is, why wasn't the man asked to move?

Again and again, this bumps up with my core belief that, you can believe
whatever the hell you want, as long as you don't impose it on others. This is
a clear violation of that.

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x1798DE
I do agree, but it may be that the only open seats were also next to women.

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wnevets
Cue the world's smallest violin.

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x1798DE
Well, my point was that maybe moving the guy (and no other people) was not an
option that would solve the issue. In no circumstance do I think someone be
forced to move like that.

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brandur
It's pretty unfortunate, but penalizing the airlines financially is the only
way that they'll stop kowtowing to these sorts of unreasonable requests.
Hopefully if this goes through, similar lawsuits will be brought against non-
Israeli airline companies and this type of anti-social behavior will go away
worldwide.

The article's key quote:

> Rabinowitz, a Jew who attends synagogue and keeps a kosher home, told the
> Guardian: “The man had no other reason to complain than my gender – and
> that’s unlawful discrimination. It’s no different than if a person of
> another religion had said: ‘I don’t want to sit next to a Jew.’ And I don’t
> believe El Al would move a person in those circumstance.”

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ScottBurson
I think this passage is also very interesting (quoting Rabinowitz):

> “He started to tell me it was forbidden by the Torah. I interrupted him to
> say the Torah says nothing about a man sitting next to a woman. He conceded
> I was right, but said there was a general principle that a person should not
> put himself in a dangerous situation."

So not only is it not explicitly forbidden by the Torah -- this whole thing is
somebody's interpretation -- but the general principle being invoked says,
don't put _yourself_ in a dangerous situation; it doesn't say that you get to
rearrange everyone around you! Either find an acceptable seat yourself, or get
off the plane!

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x5n1
More power to her.

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azinman2
Why is this on HN?

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DanBC
People on HN provide services to the public. The public are pretty good at
testing your expectations around what a reasonable service provision is.

