Israeli arrested in Turkey for 'stealing soup on flight'
Ben Gal (57) spent 3 days in Turkish jail after Pegasus Airlines flight attendant accused him of stealing in-flight food on plane to Istanbul.
An Israeli businessman spent three days in a Turkish jail after a Pegasus Airlines flight attendant claimed he stole a bag of dry soup mix on a flight to Istanbul.
"Never in my life was I as afraid as when I was in the prison cell," Ben Gal (57), a co-owner of the perfume wholesaler distributor "Benron perfume", told Ynet on Tuesday. Only after his release did the airline company admit that the bag of soup had been found under Gal's seat, and claimed he had been arrested due to his behavior on the flight.
On Friday, Gal boarded a flight from Israel to Turkey for an exhibition, with a stopover in Istanbul. "During the flight, I brought myself breakfast and paid the flight attendant with dollars," Gal recalled. "After a few minutes, she came back and mumbled the word 'soup'. I told her that I didn't understand what she wanted from me."
The flight attendant then returned with another stewardess, and the two ordered him to empty his pockets. However, Gal in turn asked them not to bother him during his meal and requested that they don't approach him again. According to him, after landing in Turkey, he found three detectives waiting for him. They took him for questioning in a side room at the international airport, and after a few hours transferred him to the police station for further investigation.
On Saturday, the next morning, Gal was taken to a detention facility where he was held with 25 detainees, most of them from hostile Arab countries.
"It was insulting, degrading and mostly scary," Gal said. "Ninety percent of the detainees were Muslims, and one of them said he had been deported from the United States for his ties with the Islamic State. I actually did get along with the Iraqis and the Iranians, but the Palestinians frightened me and threatened me. I kept hearing the words 'Israel' and 'Jew' thrown into the air."
Sharing more details of his ordeal, Gal said that it was a group of detainees from Turkmenistan who had protected him, enabling him to sleep in a corner of the room, far away from the rest. "At night I wanted to cry, I was so insulted," he continued. "I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night so that no one would hurt me."
Only on Monday was Gal deported back to Israel. Pegasus Airlines representatives in Israel said that after a search, the bag of soup powder was found under his seat, but that the arrest was made due to the passenger's behavior: "The passenger behaved in a manner that violated rules of conduct during the flight and the staff is obligated to report such incidents to the authorities. The passenger was warned to stop acting in a way that endangered the safety of the flight and its passengers."
