Nine Israelis were arrested last Thursday after landing in Istanbul after a flight attendant from the plane they arrived on from Israel complained that she had been sexually harassed.
Among the detainees were two young men from Sderot and seven from Rahat and the Bedouin diaspora.
The Israelis claim that the flight attendant was harassing them. “On the plane, we felt that she didn’t like Israelis,” said Eli, who was one of the people accused. “Then my cousin took a video of her giving the safety instructions before takeoff. She approached him and he deleted the video from the phone.
“But when we arrived in Istanbul, they didn’t let anyone get off and policemen got on the plane, they heard her claims and a supposedly Turkish passenger verified her things for her. They stopped and took us for questioning at the station at the airport. After five hours, six of us were released, but my cousin and two other Bedouins were left in custody and according to what we heard, they were transferred to a remote prison close to the Syrian border, which worries us a lot.”
Flight crew says Israeli passengers were behaving inappropriately
The Israeli passengers were accused by the flight crew of behaving inappropriately during the flight.
There are five weekly flights between Istanbul and Kigali, and the average flight is six and a half hours. Starting March 27, there will be 56 weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Istanbul Airport. (credit: TURKISH AIRLINES )The consulate in Istanbul has been briefed on the incident, and three of the nine arrested are still in custody as of Tuesday.
This is a developing story.