The three members of the anti-Israeli hate band ‘Hatari’ from Iceland reportedly apparently got a pretty cold shoulder from El Al Airlines on their flight back from Tel Aviv to London.
An individual user on Facebook posted a screenshot of their seat assignments while at the airport, and the locations on a seat map on the El Al 787-9 Dreamliner.
The user, Daher Dahli, wrote: “EL AL‘s ground crew bragging about assigning the worst seats (middle seats and separated) on the aircraft to the Icelandic band Hatari, stating that ‘this is what they get’ for protesting against the Israeli occupation and violation of human rights. #eurovision2019” according to SimplyFlying, which posted the story.
All three seats were middle seats, each separate from the other, in three separate rows and each in the middle aisle.
Einar Stef, Hatari drummer, responded on Facebook with a post of his own, directed to El Al and quoting Dahli.
Hatari media representative Felix Bergsson also complained, “Undeniably, I found this disturbing, and I’m not pleased with this kind of conduct.”
The so-called “conduct,” still not been confirmed as intentional, was allegedly a response to the very inappropriate conduct of the band itself, which hauled out banners reading PALESTINE and showing the colors of the flag of the Palestinian Authority during the vote on its performance at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, against the rules of the competition which is supposed to be strictly non-political.
Carrying out such an act in the State of Israel is despicable. One questions what Hatari could possibly offer that could qualify as an artistic contribution to Eurovision 2020. On the basis of the group’s 2019 performance alone, it barely rated the term “band.” On the basis of its behavior . . . well . . .
For those wondering, by the way — there’s been no comment from El Al Airlines about the seating arrangements for the band members.