Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, urging American authorities to lift their ban on U.S. flights to Israel, said he’s boarding a commercial flight to Tel Aviv Tuesday night in a show of solidarity with the Israeli people.
After a Hamas rocket demolished a home near Ben Gurion Airport, U.S. and European airlines suspended air traffic into Israel — a decision Bloomberg said had “hand(ed) Hamas a victory.”
“I will be flying on El Al to Tel Aviv to show solidarity with the Israeli people and to demonstrate that it is safe to fly in and out of Israel. Ben Gurion is the best protected airport in the world and El Al flights have been regularly flying in and out of it safely,” Bloomberg said in a statement Tuesday night.
“The flight restrictions are a mistake that hand Hamas an undeserved victory and should be lifted immediately,” he said, adding that he “strongly urge(s)” the Federal Aviation Administration to lift its 24-hour ban.
U.S. airlines enacted the 24-hour no-fly decision in part because of last week’s disaster in the Ukraine, when a separatist rocket apparently blasted a commercial airliner out of the sky.
The FAA said flights to Ben Gurion should be suspended until at least noon Wednesday.
Israel and Palestine are locked in a 15-day exchange of rockets and on-the-ground military operations.
