Car rental ‘refuses to rent cars to Arab callers’

The Albar car rental company allegedly refuses to rent cars to callers with Arab-sounding names and Arab accents, a Channel 2 exposé claims.

A station employee called three branches of the company in three different cities, impersonating an Arab man. In each case, he was told there are no vehicles available at the moment.

Minutes later, another employee of the station, speaking with a Hebrew accent, was easily offered a choice of car models and flexibility on when to come pick up the car.

“My manager told me that every time someone from the Arab sector arrives, to tell them there are no cars. All the time they would imply that we should not rent out cars and make up excuses… every excuse just so as not to give them a vehicle,” an employee whose voice was altered tells Channel 2.

Asked whether Arab renters cause the vehicles more damage, the employee says “Jews, Arabs, secular or ultra-Orthodox, they all cause damage to the cars. We have their credit cards and can bill them for damage.” Arab employees, she adds, were not unusually careless when it comes to damaging a rental.

The company said in response that it “rejects with disdain the implications of the TV report which is based on only two employees who may have intention to harm the company. Naturally, during this time of summer, the number of vehicles available for rent changes and is updated on the company’s computers in real time. This situation, as well as dozens of clients from the Arab sector, some of whose contracts were shown to Channel 2, completely contradicts the claims made in the report.”