The Airplane: The Most Dangerous Place in the World for a Jew
In the skies above, civil law disappearsת and with it human dignity.
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The airplane may well be the most dangerous space in the modern world for a free individual. Unlike the airport, the terminal, or the boarding gate, onboard the aircraft, civil law does not apply. The captain is the law, and the crew holds absolute authority. If any of them dislikes a particular passenger, they can have them removed, without justification, without explanation, and without recourse. And this is not arbitrary: according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), whose protocols govern over 99% of international and domestic airports worldwide, the captain is considered the highest legal authority onboard the aircraft, with full discretion to decide who may remain and who must disembark, even without criminal suspicion or provocation.
Even more troubling: local police forces, under civilian law, are required in most cases to carry out the captain’s instruction. That is, if the captain asks to remove a passenger, law enforcement officers must comply, regardless of whether any offense has occurred.
A truly Kafkaesque space.
This is why, in recent years, we’ve seen hundreds of incidents involving Jewish passengers being forcibly removed from flights, not for committing crimes, not for threatening behavior, but for praying, speaking, complaining, or daring to respond to a rude remark.
At terminals, there is law. Onboard the plane, it is a floating state, without consulate, without civil rights, and without accountability. The implications are clear: a space where one can humiliate a Jew with no fear of consequence.
Jews are easily identified, by a kippah, a kosher meal request, a seating preference, or a short prayer said while standing. All have become excuses for removal. What we are witnessing is nothing less than a modern reenactment of the expulsion of the Jew from public space.
This ritual, the removal of Jews from airplanes in Europe, America, or Asia, has already become a predictable routine. It offers the hater a moment of private triumph, a fleeting but real satisfaction: a small sweet moment where he has the ability to "deal with the Jewish problem," even in an age when a sovereign Jewish state would normally interfere.
It is a space without Israel, without ambassadors, without consuls, without a people. And for that very reason, more than anywhere else, it is a space in which you can trample a Jew and leave no trace.