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Last update - 13:33 06/04/2008
Ultra-Orthodox passengers riot aboard El Al plane over screening of film
By Zohar Blumenkrantz, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav 

Ultra-Orthodox passengers on an El Al flight to Kiev caused a serious commotion Sunday morning after, according to their testimony, a movie was screened on board the plane.

The Haredi men, en route to Uman, Ukraine to visit the gravesite of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, said that the airline had promised not to show a film during the flight.

When the screens began to unfold in preparation for the screening, the ultra-Orthodox men began going wild. "It was a pretty frightening sight," a passenger on the plane described the events. According to witnesses, the men began shouting and physically trying to prevent the movie screens from unfolding.
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This is not the first time that El Al is faced with problems with ultra-Orthodox people on board flights to religious sites. In 2002, a flight crew had to prevent an ultra-Orthodox passenger, flying from Israel to Britain, from wrapping himself in plastic bags. The pilot was forced to return to Ben Gurion International airport in order to remove the passenger from the plane. The passenger, a Cohen, wrapped himself in plastic bags for fear that the plane's route would pass through the air above the Holon cemetery and he would consequently become impure.

Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, the leader of the Lithuanian Haredi community in Israel, published a halakhic ruling in the past stipulating that Cohens mustn't fly in this plane because they are prohibited from flying over a cemetery. Later, Rabbi Eliashiv found a solution to this issue, ruling that wrapping oneself in thick plastic bags while the plane crossed over the cemetery is permissible.
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  1.   the plastic bag brigade 12:52  |  don 06/04/08
  2.   Why is it a problem? 13:07  |  Motic 06/04/08
  3.   Nu? So what was the outcome? 13:10  |  Sherlock Holmes 06/04/08
  4.   Good for them ! 13:15  |  Jew 06/04/08
  5.   movies are generally better in the plane than on the screen in el 13:18  |  noam 06/04/08
  6.   Why weren`t they shot? 13:31  |  Chris Linthwaite 06/04/08
  7.   solution 13:32  |  TW 06/04/08
  8.   They sound CRAZY. Guess what, they are CRAZY 13:38  |  POP 06/04/08
  9.   The Irony of the Ad for GAY BOYS on this page is great!!!!! 13:39  |  POP 06/04/08
  10.   films 13:41  |  Johan Yoder 06/04/08
  11.   why?????????????????? 13:42  |  eva 06/04/08
  12.   lET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT 13:56  |  eL 06/04/08
  13.   Suit life to superstitious beliefs 14:00  |  AliciaYasmeen 06/04/08
  14.   Crazy lousy black hats.... 14:20  |  Albert 06/04/08
  15.   Movie Madness 14:22  |  Ira Kleiman 06/04/08
  16.   to Jew #4 14:24  |  Albert 06/04/08
  17.   Better than blowing up the airplane! That`s crazy! 14:31  |  petra 06/04/08
  18.   Good for Them (#4) 14:41  |  Steve 06/04/08
  19.   Haradim 14:44  |  G.S 06/04/08
  20.   good reason to fly on saturday 15:02  |  M 06/04/08
  21.   (Orthodox) Israel hasn`t yet arrived at the 21th century...... 15:19  |  Swiss (Dino) 06/04/08
  22.   #6 nice moral equivallency 16:41  |  JR 06/04/08
  23.   Little completion to my # 21 16:52  |  Swiss (Dino) 06/04/08
  24.   #22 JR 17:04  |  Chris Linthwaite 06/04/08
  25.   Riots on the Plane 17:36  |  Steve a 06/04/08
  26.   NAHAL HAREDI-SAYERET-ELITE SQUAD 17:39  |  Avi Klein 06/04/08
  27.   Experience with Haradim 18:10  |  Drew 06/04/08
  28.   haredim 18:17  |  edith 06/04/08
  29.   Swiss Dino #23. 18:31  |  David 06/04/08
  30.   So you Steve (22) believe in something too. More or less foolish? 18:33  |  Karl 06/04/08
  31.   How could Elyashiv make such a ruling? 18:56  |  Raymond from DC 06/04/08
  32.   Unbelievable parallel: How abuse of seculars is matched by goyim 19:02  |  Yaakov 06/04/08
  33.   # 15 Ira Kleiman.....they should hire a private 19:06  |  Lynn 06/04/08
  34.   Don - here`s what German and European law say on the issue. 19:11  |  Allon 06/04/08
  35.   Raymond from DC 19:16  |  Jim 06/04/08
  36.   GREAT!!! 19:22  |  PS 06/04/08
  37.   movie madness 19:23  |  elliot 06/04/08
  38.   Isn`t that ridiculous 19:35  |  Joshua 06/04/08
  39.   To # 15 19:38  |  mark 06/04/08
  40.   Safety Video 19:51  |  ABL 06/04/08
  41.   # 31 allon 19:56  |  Axel 06/04/08
  42.   Allon, the argument is fail 20:19  |  Haldrik 06/04/08
  43.   re Chris Linthwaite `Why weren`t they shot?` 20:22  |  Colin Wright 06/04/08
  44.   Dino 20:48  |  Jane 06/04/08
  45.   # 29 David 20:52  |  Swiss (Dino) 06/04/08
  46.   Convince them not to fly 21:07  |  W 06/04/08
  47.   These guys are the reason why 6 MILLION 21:15  |  ottomatik 06/04/08
  48.   Isn`t it funny how they can protest because.... 21:16  |  Deborah 06/04/08
  49.   Nature is predatory. Humans are uniquely more valuable. 21:17  |  Haldrik 06/04/08
  50.   Come on all you tolerant people 21:19  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 06/04/08
  51.   Chareidim Resemble the Moslems 21:30  |  Raymond 06/04/08
  52.   Bring back racial profiling 21:36  |  Ehud 06/04/08
  53.   # 44 Jane (1) 21:39  |  Swiss (Dino) 06/04/08
  54.   Chris Lithwaite #6, #24 is an antisemite 21:46  |  Asher 06/04/08
  55.   # 44 Jane (2) 21:58  |  Swiss (Dino) 06/04/08
  56.   Secular passengers are always well-behaved, never a problem ??? 21:58  |  ace 06/04/08
  57.   Arrest them 22:02  |  Semsem 06/04/08
  58.   I heard it was a very bad movie 22:03  |  Proud Israeli 06/04/08
  59.   Chris Linthwaite -- absolutely clueless about Judaism 22:06  |  bbl 06/04/08
  60.   #49 Asher of new York 22:09  |  Chris Linthwaite 06/04/08
  61.   The question is: what was the film? 22:16  |  Esther 06/04/08
  62.   Such goody-goody`s - or so it seems! 22:18  |  Rozz 06/04/08
  63.   Re Margie #49 22:29  |  Esther 06/04/08
  64.   #50 The SA queen in TA Gets it wrong as usual 22:37  |  Labhras 06/04/08
  65.   #53 Swiss Dino and Jane 22:43  |  Labhras 06/04/08
  66.   bbl 22:46  |  Chris Linthwaite 06/04/08
  67.   bbl 22:46  |  Chris Linthwaite 06/04/08
  68.   Dino 22:59  |  Jane 06/04/08
  69.   Oh Chris 23:02  |  Hilda 06/04/08
  70.   #6, Chris Linthwaite... 23:07  |  Silvienne 06/04/08
  71.   #43, Colin Wright... 23:09  |  Silvienne 06/04/08
  72.   Riot aboard El Al plane 23:12  |  Dave 06/04/08
  73.   #60, Chris Linthwaite... 23:13  |  Silvienne 06/04/08
  74.   Chris Linthwaite