El Al pilot likens overhaul to Holocaust: ‘We’re fighting to remain a democracy’

An El Al pilot causes controversy 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.

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

האזינו לדברי הקברניט בטיסת אל על דורון גינצבורג שדיבר על ההגנה על הדמוקרטיה
(קרדיט עמית סגל והמוקד) pic.twitter.com/LbWQhunCkY

— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) April 18, 2023

Following criticism from passengers and others, the airline comments that it “condemns political statements of any kind by any of its staff during their work, and definitely in its planes, which can’t be a stage for such activity.”

“The company instructs to avoid this, especially on such a sensitive and significant day for the nation of Israel,” El Al says, adding that the “irregular” incident doesn’t reflect the company’s values and will be thoroughly probed.