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Lufthansa machines (archive image)
Photo: CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP
An incident at Frankfurt Airport is now occupying the top management of Lufthansa – and politics.
The airline has apologized for not allowing a large number of Orthodox Jews to fly from Frankfurt to Budapest last week.
"Lufthansa expressly apologizes to the guests," said the airline in a tweet published on Tuesday.
"The events are not in line with our values," the company continued.
Hesse's anti-Semitism commissioner Uwe Becker asked the top management to take a stand.
The incident happened last Wednesday (May 4) in Frankfurt am Main.
This was preceded by the repeated refusal of some passengers on the flight from New York to Frankfurt, also after the crew had asked them to wear masks to protect against infection with the corona virus.
This is how Lufthansa described it.
The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, citing a passenger on the Lufthansa plane from New York, wrote that all passengers who could be identified as Jews by their hat and sidelocks were excluded from further carriage – and not specifically the passengers who who had misbehaved.
Clear words from the anti-Semitism commissioner
The Lufthansa statement from Tuesday also states that the incident is being taken very seriously and that intensive work is being done to clarify the matter.
"Notwithstanding, we regret that the larger group was not allowed to continue their journey, rather than limiting this decision to individuals."
Hesse's anti-Semitism officer announced on Tuesday evening that a whole group of people had obviously been held responsible for something that obviously only affected individual travelers simply because of their recognizable belief.
“This is discriminatory and not trivial, and it is all the more important for the top management to feel personally responsible for apologizing for this incident and taking a clear and unequivocal position,” says Becker.
He would be happy to talk to Lufthansa.
"Something like this must not be repeated," said the anti-Semitism commissioner.
jok/dpa