You would be too - so why the article is slanted in this way is very telling. A better journalist would have focused on the fact that El Al broke their agreement, rather than on the natural result of people being angry by that agreement being broken. Leave it to religion-hating Neta Sela to "position" it to make YNET readers angry at the religious (again).

They took an El Al flight, plane and passengers and called them SunD'or to "trick" the religious community into thinking that they El Al wasn't breaking the agreement they made. They got caught - good for everyone involved. Shame on YNET for trying to make it seem like it was the haredim's fault again. Gee, you people love to cause trouble for the religious.

You think the mashiakh will be wearing such ridiculous clothing and a stremel? Your time as the 'gatekeepers' has almost run out. Boy will you be dissapointed when the Mashiakh is revealed. I can't wait!! Neither can the rest of the world. Save your money as you will need new clothes!!

El Al should seek to ignore haredim in the future. If haredim continue to interfere, they should be locked up for restraint of commerse and trade, interfering with the conduct of business. Most JEWS see their Judaism differently. No need to penalize them . Haredim can always decide not to fly on Shabbat.

is on going, used every week, so -Ma Nishtana haShabbat Hazot? She Sheb'Shabat Hazot they forgot to stick on the little packet of San Dor toy stickers, and THATS the difference..Where are the San Dor toy stickers when you most need them, ha ha ha... Oi vay, toy boys, off you go, again, to British Airways etc. This time you'll get easter eggs (instead of mistletoe) with your glatt, if you hurry. ( Every chag same Purim shpiel tho')

I was on this flight. Given the circumstances I don't see how El Al could have or should have done anything differently. On a 14-hour flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv, the plane had to make a stop at Heathrow airport to fix a problem with the pressurization system. The flight ended yup being delayed for another six hours on the runway while the problem was fixed. All of the orthodox religious passengers (about five people I think) were allowed to leave and were compensated (place to stay, food, etc) for Shabbat. Everyone else wanted to get to Tel Aviv. I don't see the alternative-El Al should have forced all of the secular, non-Jewish, or non-orthodox passengers to get off in London so that haredim would not be upset in Israel? That makes no sense. El Al has some problems (terrible customer service) but in this case made the best decision available.

I hope this will serve as a lesson to them as to why you cannot keep trying to appease the Haredim. It will only embolden them to try to force their religious beliefs down the throat of an entire country. And because airline travel also involves safety and security issues, no airline can afford to give these people that much power. And while, obviously, it's a business decision and it's all about money, the fact is that it's probably setting a really bad precedent.

Here we go again... El Al were in an unavoidable situation and made best of the bad. You can not demand all passengers on the flight to get off and pause their lives for two days just to keep the Charedi community happy. This was an excellent compromise, and as Religious Israeli, I applaud El Al's decsion. The Charedi world needs to come to terms with the reality in which we live and quite their moaning.

First of all, how can an airline be profitable when it does not operate on Shabat and Jewish holidays? Secondly, if the Haredim are offended, let them fly other airlines. Who the hell are they to dictate when the airlines can fly? Where women sit on public buses? When businesses can or cannot be open? What do these Jewish Taliban do that benefits Israel? They do not work. They do not serve in the military. They contribute very little and take a lot. The nerve of them.

why are the haredim holding israel to ransom ? again and again they are trying to force their strict belief on everybody in israel.

As much as I respect other peoples' religious feelings and customs, I believe this time the Shabbath-observant people have gone too far. It doesn't bother them to use US companies flying between New-York and T-A, but why then such special treatment of El-Al? El-Al is after all a commercial entity, which aim is to make profit and provide good service to clients, but not single out one ( and not major) segment of customers and sign with them special agreements, next that you'll know , another group of people will demand something special from El-Al, hey it's a joke! You can't bring religious issues to a point of the ridiculous!

El Al customer service in Israel has never disappointed us tho', even by phone. El Al still THE BEST and this episode PROVES it. I wish a religious person on this flight would be polite enough to thank them publicly through ynet for a free Shabbat and hotel in London!!! As a Shomer Shabbat family we will continue to travel home ONLY EL AL Well done. Just remember to have a box of stickers on every Friday /erev chag flight, if you want to keep the hypocrites happy( no need to do this farce for us tho', we'll graciously accept your kind Shabbat gift)

DON'T give in to the haredim.

THERE WAS NO TECHNICAL PROBLEM! WE GOT DELAYED THOUGH AIR TRAFFIC AND WERE GOING TO LAND IN ISRAEL APPROX 1.5HOURS INTO SHABBAT. THE NEXT THING WE KNOW WE'RE LANDING AT HEATHROW.

They did NOT TRANSFER or change to different planes. All ElAl did was "reticket" to Sundor.

To all of the anti-religious people out there: For the record, in the next 3 weeks, there will be close to 15 THOUSAND Boys and girls students in Israel returning home for the hiloday of Pesach. Watch El Al go bankrupt when 15 thousand tickets are tossed in the garbage pail. YW Editor. www.theyeshivaworld.com

There should be no half measures. EL AL should fly seven days a week. The haredim should fly on other airlines and not impose their norms on others and if they want to blackmail through boycott, so be it. If EL AL collapses as a result, it is clear that we are so mad, we don't deserve an airline of our own and should fly the airlines of sane countries instead.

El Al has the right to make a business decision - to fly on shabbat. No problem - and we religious have the right to make a business decision - support an airlines that flies on shabbat and breaks agreements when it suits them - or support an airlines that lives up to its agreement. Either way - our choice to NOT support El Al is just as legitimate as their decision to cater to then non-religious, sabbath-breaking population. I wish those who are whining about the religious boycott that is about to begin would just stop and realize that we TOO have the right to use our money as we wish. You want - fly El Al. Personally, I won't support an organization that lies any more than I would support a corrupt government...ah, isn't that interesting.

They won't go bankrupt if the tickets were already purchased.

pink panther style, with binoculars at B G or a nearby moshav or yishuv every Friday aft. near to countdown time, ready to pounce, shriek 'shabbes', and contact oi vynet?(Acc to one talkback no religious travellers landed.) Does he burn ladies clothes the rest of the week?....

You are making a good point. However when Elal signed an agreement not to fly on shabbos it was to prevent this exact scenario. If Elal wants to fly on shabbos noone can stop them. However they have to be upfront about it, not try to circumvent the agreement by changing the call sign.

In the past year i have flown with el al 11 times. Once i flew on a friday and one of the flight attendants pointed out to me that it was better to fly on a thursday. I landed with 1 1/2 hour to spare and i appreciated the sensetivity from the crew. Alttough i wish that every jew would see the beauty of the shabbath,it is a individuals choice to keep it. There is a approach and attitude from the haredi culture that angers many people and pushes them away instead of including them. I will continuii to fly el al on the days that are good for me. And i hope that the people with all the anger feelings towards this group of our population can be a little more forgiving.

As you live in Jerusalem , Israel , don't use your galut Shabbos , this day is called Shabbat here . In your eyes a vast quantity of NON religious , and NON jewish people had to loose a day in London ? Nice mentality ! But i don't wonder , it comes from a religious Galut Jew .

Hurrah the airline made a choice based on its customer's needs,bravo. They put the Haredi up in hotels as well as anyother person wishing not to fly on the sabbath,so who got hurt? The Haredi didnot descrate the Sabbath,so why should they care if others did? It is not for them to judge anyone,it says in the bible do not judge lest you be judged!

So I am assuming that all you readers who are happy for El Al to fly on Shabbat are aware that the "Nations" are gloating (read several Arab biographies if you don't believe me) because they know that when they don't act as Jews, they are not deserving. As one very prominent prisoner (who's name I can't recall but it's been well documented) writes: he was ready to give in the fight of terror until one Yom Kippur when he saw a prison guard eating. When he questioned the actions of the prison guard, the guard replied that tradition/religion meant nothing to him. At that moment our "hero" realised that a people without a past is a people without a future. Think about it!

if you don't accept elal as the most kosher airline, and don't fly ,then what do you do? switch to lufthansa? Mind you - they serve shrimps for breakfast. And they DEDFINETELY fly on Shabbath. So you'll punish the national airline and what do you gain? The words "hypocrisy" and "absurdity" are coming to mind. As a private businessman I am infuriated when non-business reasoning - like Arab boycott, trade-union strikes, wars and conflicts affect the business, now you want to add religious factor too . And who will pay for it? Other passengers who'll have to pay extra for their tickets on elal flights, as elal doesn't use 15% of the week capacity? why does majority have to pay for you?are you ready to pay for me and my preferences?

El Al is paying a very heavy price for defiling Shabbat. They are losing major market share, shutting down routes, and laying off employees. Just as Rabin and Sharon paid the price, so is El Al.