Israeli amusement park accused of apartheid booking policy

An Israeli amusement park has been accused of operating an apartheid booking policy after an Arab school teacher was told that a particular day was not available once the booking clerk discovered that he wasn’t a Jew.

A report in Haaretz newspaper says that the Superland Amusement Park in Rishon Letzion took a call from Khalid Al-Ashqar of Ajyal School in Jaffa who wanted to book his students in for an end-of-term fun day out. He was told that three days were available in July but when he gave his school details the booking clerk said that the day chosen was not free after all. Mr Al-Asqar hung-up and then called back pretending to be speaking on behalf of a Jewish organisation and he was able to book one of the same three days which had been suddenly “unavailable” for his Arab school students.

When asked about this, the Superland management told Haaretz that the park accepts bookings from Jewish and Arab students on separate days.

Israel’s Minister of Justice, Tzipi Livni, has apparently asked the state auditor to make enquiries about this policy at the amusement park. A member of the Knesset from the left-wing Meretz Party asked the government to cancel all student visits to the park because of the management’s unacceptable segregation policy.