German court in Hesse hears case alleging discrimination against Israelis by Kuwait Airways
The High Court of Hesse on Thursday heard an appeal against a previous Frankfurt court ruling regarding Kuwait Airways’ discriminatory policy of banning Israeli passengers from flying on the airline. The case was brought by an Israeli student, represented by The Lawfare Project and its German counsel Nathan Gelbart, after he booked a flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok in 2016 but was not allowed to take his seat because of a Kuwaiti law that bans all citizens and companies from doing business with citizens of the Jewish state.
The Frankfurt court found in favor of the airline last year, prompting outrage in Germany. The Israeli plaintiff appealed with support from The Lawfare Project, resulting in today’s hearing.
The appeal argued that the verdict applied the racist law of a radical, totalitarian, and theocratic regime and allowed it to overrule German national air transportation laws, which obligate every air carrier to transport any passenger with valid travel documents. In so doing, the court had aided and abetted Kuwait in imposing its anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli laws even though such discrimination is illegal in Germany. According to an archaic and anti-Semitic 1964 Kuwaiti law, all relations with Israeli citizens are prohibited.
In the hearing, the court made clear that it shared the view of The Lawfare Project that this Kuwaiti law must not be applied in Germany as it contradicts important German values, including the value of friendship towards the State of Israel. The court explicitly said that the Kuwaiti law was also not applicable in Germany because it represents a collective punishment against all Israelis. It cannot be tolerated, the court argued, that such a law could be applied by a German court to justify Kuwait Airways’ discrimination. This means that the contract for transportation—the plaintiff’s plane ticket—should be considered valid and the airline should have flown him to Bangkok.
Yet the court also expressed doubts that, in the event of a verdict against Kuwait Airways, the verdict would be respected and practicably fulfilled for factual reasons. Factually, the court said, our client would not be able to leave the first plane after it landed in Kuwait, because even the transit area of the airport is under the territorial integrity of Kuwait. Kuwait Airways had therefore sold the plaintiff an impossible product. Nonetheless, the court continued, the Kuwaiti law banning any involvement with Israeli citizens could not be used to justify discrimination. That law is not applicable, the court said, and is most probably an act of discrimination against Jewish people given that 74% of Israeli citizens are Jewish. It is also a contravention of the German Air Transportation Act.
The court therefore said that while the plaintiff’s ticket remains valid, it is skeptical that it could reach a verdict knowing from the start that this verdict would be factually impossible to fulfil.
Nathan Gelbart responded that he did not think it would be reasonable for the court to avoid issuing a verdict against Kuwait Airways just because its verdict would not be enforced by the airline. By this logic, any company can undermine the rule of law entirely by simply refusing to abide by a judicial verdict. Gelbart asked the court to reconsider this point.
The court is expected to render a decision on September 25th. — From the Lawfare Project
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Republican Jewish Coalition plans major campaign against Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) on Thursdayannounced it will launch a major TV ad campaign in the North Dakota Senate race.
The $1 million television and digital advertising campaign will highlight the support of US Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) for President Obama’s dangerous nuclear deal with Iran. The RJC has bought TV airtime during the entire month of September in the Fargo and Minot markets. The ad, entitled “Roots,” highlights how Heitkamp abandoned her North Dakota commonsense values to side with Washington liberals in support of the disastrous Iran nuclear deal.
After the RJC ran a highly successful $530,000 advertising campaign in PA-1 in June about the record of Democratic candidate Scott Wallace, he was forced to run what the Cook Political Report called “an almost unheard-of June damage-control ad” and the Cook Report moved that race from “Toss Up” to “Lean Republican.”
The RJC will continue to play a prominent role this fall in key Congressional races.
RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said:
“Heidi Heitkamp voted for the Iran deal, putting party loyalty above American security and the desires of her constituents. She knew the deal was a dangerous risk that would give Iran access to some $100 billion, money that Iran has used to support terrorists like Hezbollah and the cruel Assad regime in Syria. The deal has made America less safe.
“Now the voters of North Dakota can finally make Heitkamp answerable for her votes in Washington, especially her support for the dangerous Iran deal. This issue is important to the RJC, but importantly, it matters to all Americans and North Dakotans who care about national security.”
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Tel Aviv University develops a “Robat”
The “Robat” is a fully autonomous terrestrial robot with bat-like qualities that uses echolocation to move through novel environments while mapping them based only on sound. It was developed at Tel Aviv University.
Bats use echolocation to map novel environments, navigating them by emitting sound then extracting information from the echoes reflected by objects in their surroundings. Many theories have been proposed to explain how bats harness sonar in order to navigate, but few attempts have been made to build a robot that mimics a bat’s abilities.
A TAU study about the invention was published today in PLOS Computational Biology.
TAU graduate student Itamar Eliakim developed a robot that uses a biological bat-like approach, emitting sound and analyzing the returning echoes to generate a map of space. Prof. Yossi Yovel of TAU’s Department of Zoology and Dr. Gabor Kosa of TAU’s School of Mechanical Engineering serve as Mr. Eliakim’s advisors.
“Our Robat is the first fully autonomous, bat-like biorobot that moves through a novel environment while mapping it solely based on echo information. This information delineates the borders of objects and the free paths between them,” says Eliakim. “We’ve been able to demonstrate the great potential of using sound in future robotic applications.”
The Robat is equipped with an ultrasonic speaker that produces frequency-modulated chirps at a rate typically used by bats, as well as two ultrasonic microphones that serve as the robot’s ears. It classifies the borders and shapes of the objects it encounters with an artificial neural network, creating a rich, accurate map of its environment while avoiding obstacles. For example, when reaching a dead end, the robot uses its classification abilities to determine whether it is blocked by a wall or by a plant through which it could pass.
Funding for the research was provided partially by the Israel Ministry of Science, Technology and Space. — From Tel Aviv University.
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Living and working in Israel builds Jewish leadership, survey firm reports
Masa Israel Journey on Thursday released a study—the first-of-its-kind—conducted by Rosov Consulting, which offers a fresh view into how Jewish Millennials become leaders, addressing what has been seen as a looming crisis in the Jewish world.
Following a survey of nearly 1,000 Masa alumni and a series of interviews with nearly forty of them, between four and ten years after their participation in the program, Rosov Consulting found that the immersive, long-term experience in Israel makes a powerful contribution in cultivating leaders.
More than half of respondents who self-describe as “Jewish leaders” attribute their involvement with Israel and the Jewish community to their experience on Masa. The study found that the uniquely immersive and global nature of the program – in which participants live, work, and socialize with other Jewish young adults from around the world – provides exposure to diverse viewpoints that teach teamwork and collaboration. A majority of respondents credited the experience as a significant factor in making them more likely to develop key leadership skills, such as identifying problems, creating solutions, and using vision to drive change.
“This data provides unique insight into how we can cultivate the next generation of leaders so needed for the Jewish world,” said Masa Israel Journey CEO, Liran Avisar. “We are proud to have partnered with the talented Rosov Consulting team to take an unprecedented look at how Jewish Millennials develop the skills and qualities to manifest leadership in the workplace and Jewish communal spaces. As the largest pipeline for the Diaspora to access immersive, long-term professional and educational experiences in Israel, Masa is uniquely positioned to bring solutions to the table to address this challenge.” — From Masa Israel Journey
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