The Local
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11 October 2018
Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP.
Switzerland’s main carrier has been criticised for displaying an-inflight map to passengers on a flight to Israel that omitted Tel Aviv but included the Palestinian village of Al-Shaykh Muwannis, which was destroyed and abandoned in 1948.
For 25 years, the Swiss airline carrier has turned off the in-flight maps at least half an hour before the plane lands in Tel Aviv. But flight LX252 apparently forgot to, reports Swiss daily Blick, causing quite a controversy among passengers, mainly because Swiss’ map displays a former Palestinian village that no longer exists.
Stand With Us, a pro-Israeli American NGO, was unimpressed.
Keen to avoid falling into the quagmire of one of the world’s most divisive conflicts, a spokesperson for the airline told Blick that the company is politically neutral and that the maps are installed by a third company. The village destroyed in 1948, Al-Shaykh Muwannis, was not supposed to feature. Today, the University of Tel Aviv is situated on the grounds of the destroyed village.
more:
An Airbus commercial plane of Swiss International Air Lines flies before the women’s downhill race at the 2017 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in St Moritz on February 12, 2017. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Europe, Switzerland