The crowd at Tuesday’s pro-Israel rally was estimated at 290,000, making it the largest-ever pro-Israel rally in the world. But at least 900 Jews who arrived in Washington on chartered flights didn’t make it to the rally, after the drivers hired to bus them from the airport to the National Mall maliciously called out sick so as not to have to bring them to a pro-Israel rally.
The travelers were unable to enter the airport terminal, as they had not gone through TSA security. This left them without transportation and without anywhere at all to go, other than sitting and waiting on the tarmac – for hours.
Their plight was mentioned during the rally.
“There are also 900 participants from the Detroit Federation who arrived at Dulles airport a few hours ago, whose bus drivers refused to take them to a pro-Israel event,” William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents told the massive crowd.
Ultimately, other than a few outliers, the massive crowd of Detroit Jews who were discriminated against by clearly antisemitic bus drivers never made it to the airport. Having waited on the tarmac for hours, they were forced to re-board the plane and fly back to Detroit.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
21 Responses
I smell a lawsuit. Hope those drivers enjoy the unemployment line.
Can you find out the name of the bus company so we know who to boycott?
Were these DC Transit drivers who work for the city or were they from a private charter bus company? If a private company they can be boycotted until these drivers are fired.
Why isn’t the name of the bus company made public? They should be raked over the coals with all kinds of negative advertisement.
Can they sue the airport?
It’s horrible and I hope that there is a massive massive massive massive lawsuit.
That story makes absolutely no sense.
Why couldn’t they leave the airport and go with ubers etc?
It’s a price domestic flight?
So…..who to sue?
The Gedolim said not to go. Baruch Hashem they ended up not going.
I never would have guessed Joseph is a bus driver in Washington DC. Great plot twist.
There are several iterations of this story being published outside of YWN. One is that the drivers just never showed. Another is deposits were never paid. Another was contracts were never signed.
Why couldn’t they take public transportation? The DC Metro Silver Line goes.from Dulles into central Washington.
an Israeli Yid
As disgusting as this incident was, there were NOT “tens of thousands” who were forced to fly back home w/o attending as mentioned in the video. The headline of the news story is roughly correct and somewhere between 800 and 1200 individuals were stranded at the General Aviation Terminal adjacent to the Air and Space Museum. There were drivers from two charter bus companies who didn’t show up at Dulles this AM in what was clearly an anti-Israel boycott. This had nothing to do with public transit in a suburban jurisdiction in Virginia 30 miles from the Mall.
Ujm… what a stupid childish and insensitive comment . The gedolim said bnei yeshiva shouldn’t go.
hope they get fired and arrested for supporting terrorism and hatred.
Disgusting. If this happened to any other group in America the outcry over the blatant racism would have been deafening.
The bus company name should be publicized, so we can avoid doing business with them, unless the company fires the drivers.
This comment is for ujm Which Gedolim said not to go. I was in touch with many yeshivos they encouraged
the balabatim to go. When you used the term Gedolim please do not mislead people in thinking that all Gedolim said not to go. You are spreading dis-unity in klal yisroel.
I assume the yeshivas will take less tuition because the balibatem took the day off
They made the mistake of booking with a broker instead of booking direct with a carrier. A broker does not own or operate their own equipment. The name of the broker was Catch Transportation of Sterling Heights, Michigan.
anIsraeliYid, they arrived on charter planes, so they had no gate and could not get to the terminal, nor could they walk around on the tarmac. They had to wait for a vehicle to come and pick them up, and only vehicles with permits are allowed on to the tarmac. They could not call an uber, or walk to the nearest Metro station.
Lazerc, I hope the drivers are fired, but there are no grounds for arresting them.