The ultra-Orthodox have a long history of disagreements with Israel's national air carrier. El Al lost big in the latest conflict, suffering both economic and image losses in Israeli companies' ongoing dilemma with the religious-Orthodox market. 

A summary of events: The takeoff of an El Al flight from New York to Israel that was supposed to land at Ben-Gurion Airport at noon on Friday, Nov. 15, was delayed because of a snowstorm on the East Coast of the United States. The ultra-Orthodox passengers who asked to get off the flight for fear it would land in Israel after the start of the Sabbath on Friday evening were reassured that despite the delay they would land well before the start of the Sabbath. During the flight it became clear that the plane would land just before the Sabbath began, meaning that the ultra-Orthodox passengers, who do not use transportation on the Sabbath, would have little or no time to get home. An uproar broke out on the plane, and though there are multiple versions as to the nature and essence of this commotion, the flight attendants and many passengers attested that ultra-Orthodox passengers became violent toward the staff.

In the end, the plane landed in Athens, Greece. The passengers spent the Sabbath at a local hotel and received kosher food from the Chabad House in Athens. At the end of the Sabbath, they took off for Israel. 

One of the passengers who emerged shaken from the flight made a Facebook post in which she accused the ultra-Orthodox passengers of verbal and physical violence toward the flight attendants. “It seems that the commandment to keep the Sabbath is more important than loving your neighbor as yourself,” she wrote. These reports made their way to Israeli news sites and ultra-Orthodox passengers were repeatedly accused of violence on the flight. El Al supported the flight attendants’ and other passengers’ versions regarding the violence and noted that it would make a complaint to the police.