Several passengers who recently tried to fly to Israel with Air France's subsidiary, the French company Transavia, encountered an unusual case - upon arriving at the boarding gate, they were informed that the Israeli government did not allow them to board and fly to Israel.
When the passengers asked the full reason for this, the airline's Daily claimed that they had no additional information, and that they could not board a flight to Israel.
It is important to emphasize that there is no connection between the passengers and that these are different flights and different times.
By chance we were exposed through the grandmother of Uriel Tsabari, who got married earlier this week and was waiting for his grandmother who lives in France.
The 93-year-old grandmother, who arrived at the boarding gate accompanied by her daughters, was informed that she was not allowed to fly to Israel.
Following the incident, we came across many others who had a similar case, and in conversations with them, they say that they had the same experience that Sabri's grandmother had.
Shirel Azulai tells Israel today: "It is registered in the system that I can not fly because the Israeli government does not allow me to fly to Israel - this is what one of the flight attendants of Tranavia told me. I live in Israel, there is no reason for me to be prevented from flying to Israel. And I asked them to let me in but they were very unpleasant, and insisted that I was not allowed to board the flight.
Had to spend a few days in the field.
Illustration, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
"I arrived at the Israeli embassy in Paris and there they checked the passport and said everything was fine and there was no stopping me from flying to Israel. I went back to the airport and explained that I was now at the embassy and they said everything was fine. I bought a new ticket the next day. I let them talk to the State Department and the police, who told them there was no problem I would fly, and yet they insisted I was not allowed.
"I spent a few days at the airport trying to get back to Israel, and after a very very long and difficult process I finally succeeded. I had someone else with me on the first flight who had the same experience, and eventually their flight attendant explained to me that it was a problem with their system. It happened because of their conduct, it's unbelievable. "
"A few weeks ago, we went through the exact same story," says another Israeli woman whose relative experienced the same case. "We talked to the Foreign Ministry and they did not understand why there was a ban on flying to Israel and they did not know what it was about. Later she bought a plane ticket from another company and flew to Israel, but it cost her quite a bit of money and especially a lot of heartache."
The Israeli system today received additional evidence of similar cases.
We examined the issue with the Population and Immigration Authority, which stated that they did not recognize any impediment to entering the country in those cases, and even helped return some of the passengers in question to Israel together with Foreign Ministry officials.
Air France and Transavia did not respond to a request for comment.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us