Activists pose as El Al stewardesses at Belgium tourism fair

Anti-war group offers passers-by pamphlets detailing what the group claims is El Al’s role in transporting weapons for the IDF.

By BEN HARTMAN
el al stewardess 88 248 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
el al stewardess 88 248
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Six activists were arrested at a tourism expo in Brussels, Belgium on Monday, after they impersonated El Al stewardesses and handed out pamphlets smearing the Israeli airline.
The activists’ uniforms were exact down to the Hebrew name tags, and a number of expo attendees were reportedly fooled by the ruse.
The activists, who police say are members of an anti-war group called “Peace Action,” offered passers-by “vouchers” for a free flight to Israel and invited them to head over to the El Al and Israel Tourism Ministry booths for their free flight.
The “vouchers” were actually pamphlets written in Flemish, detailing what the group claimed was El Al’s role in transporting weapons for the Israel Defense Forces.
Security guards at the event contacted police, who held the activistsfor questioning for several hours before releasing them. The activistscould face charges of disturbing the peace. An El Al spokesperson saidthe company did not know where the activists obtained the uniforms, orwhether they were homemade.
A spokesperson for Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov said Wednesday thatthe protest managed to raise some disturbance at the beginning of theexpo but was quickly dealt with, and the rest of the event was asuccess for the ministry.
The spokesperson referred to such expos as crucial to allowing “Israelto present itself to the world” and said that events like Monday’s,which happen “only from time to time,” do not overshadow the importanceof such gatherings.