German court rules that Kuwait Airways can’t be forced to carry Israelis

A German court ruled on Tuesday that Kuwait Airways could not be forced to carry an Israeli passenger who bought a ticket from Germany to Thailand, due to Kuwait’s boycott of Israel, Reuters has reported. The court in Frankfurt upheld a previous ruling of a lower court that angered the passenger, German officials and Jewish groups.

While the court slammed the ban on Israeli citizens as “unacceptable and irrelevant” in Germany, it said that it was impossible in practice for the airline to carry the passenger. “As Israelis in practice are not allowed to enter the transit areas of Kuwait’s airport, the plaintiff cannot demand transportation by the Kuwaiti airline from Frankfurt to Bangkok with a stopover in Kuwait,” the judgement explained.

The Israeli plaintiff accused the lower court of accepting a racist Kuwaiti law and allowed the airline to override German laws, said Reuters. The airline, meanwhile, believed the lawsuit to have been politically motivated and pointed out that it has great respect for German law.

“In both proceedings,” commented Kuwait Airways, “the judges came to the same conclusion in their judgements, which were comprehensible to all sides, well balanced, well-founded and well-derived: Kuwait Airways acted in accordance with the laws of Germany and its home country.”

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