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Air Traffic Climbs at Israel’s Tel Aviv Airport in 2023 But War Weighs
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Air travel to and from Israel plunged in the last three months of 2023 amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, but the number of passengers traveling through Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv still rose 10% in 2023.
The number of international travelers reached 21.1 million in 2023, up from 19.2 million in 2022, the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) said in a report on Sunday.
Over the first 9 months of the year, before the Oct. 7 attacks by Palestinian Islamist terrorist Hamas, passenger traffic surged by an annual 38.5%, to 19.1 million.
But since then, traffic has plunged, culminating in a 78% drop in November and 71% dive in December, the IAA said.
With almost all foreign carriers having halted flights to and from Israel as a result of heavy rocket attacks from Gaza and the war, flag carrier El Al Israel Airlines benefited, with the number of passengers rising 32.5% to 5.5 million in 2023 for a 26.3% market share at Ben Gurion.
Wizz Air was the second-largest airline last year with a more than 9% share; passenger traffic was up 35.5% despite the company halting flights in the fourth quarter. Ryanair was third with a 5.4% share, although its number of passengers dipped 12% in 2023.
“Ben Gurion remains operative while maintaining and observing the safety and security of the planes and passengers,” said Udi Bar Oz, managing director of Ben Gurion.
In December, nearly 80% of passengers flew El Al, followed by smaller Israeli carrier Israir at 10% and FlyDubai at 3.2%. During the month, just seven foreign carriers flew to Israel.
Bar Oz noted that at 17%, the United States – mainly via New York’s JFK airport – was the country with the highest volume of activity in December, followed by France and Britain.
Airlines such as Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian and Aegean have resumed flights to Tel Aviv. Air France and Ryanair are slated to restart this week and next week.
In 2023, 3 million tourists visited Israel, up from 2.7 million in 2022.
The post Air Traffic Climbs at Israel’s Tel Aviv Airport in 2023 But War Weighs first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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