El Al pilots refusing to deport African refugees on humanitarian grounds

At least three El Al pilots are refusing to participate in the mass deportation of African asylum seekers by not flying them to Rwanda or Uganda under a new controversial law.

Over the last week, the Aviation Authority and the pilots union said they had received over 7,500 calls urging the pilots not to participate in the deportation “and send the refugees to a place where their lives are in danger.”

One pilot, Iddo Elad, announced on Facebook that he would refuse to fly anyone to their death.

“I have joined my friends in this and I will not fly refugees to their death. I will not participate in this barbarism,” he writes.

Another, Shaul Betzer, also took to Facebook to say that “as a pilot and as a human being” there is “absolutely no way I can take part in transporting refugees to a place where their chances of survival are slim to none.”