El Al pilot apologizes for preflight message tying judicial overhaul to Holocaust

An El Al pilot apologizes after he caused an outcry by delivering a preflight message likening the government’s attempt to radically reshape the justice system to the events in Nazi Germany that preceded the Holocaust.

The incident occurred on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, drawing angry public reactions and condemnation from the national carrier, which said the message doesn’t reflect its values and promised a thorough probe.

“Things like the Holocaust are potentially carried out in a dictatorship, and we are fighting in Israel to remain a democratic country,” the captain said in Hebrew and English at the end of boarding for flight LY7 from Tel Aviv to New York.

However, Hebrew media reports that toward the end of the flight, he apologized to passengers.

“As the son of a survivor of the Buchenwald death camp, I’m aware of the importance of the day,” he says. “On this day we all unite and stand together with the memory of the Holocaust and the victims.”

“I would like to make it clear that I had no intention of hurting any passenger with what I said. I apologize from the bottom of my heart to those who were hurt by my words,” the pilot says.