|
|
NEWS
Flights from Ben-Gurion Airport Still Not Permitted to
Kohanim
by Betzalel Kahn
After a two-day survey of takeoff routes last week showed
many planes departing from Ben-Gurion International Airport
still pass over the Cholon Cemetery, gedolei haposkim
announced that international flights are not yet permitted to
Kohanim. However, due to concerted, ongoing efforts by United
Torah Jewry activists 40 percent of the planes took a new
flight path that has no problems, according to survey
results.
Following another announcement by Transportation Minister
Ephraim Sneh instructing El-Al to alter its takeoff route for
international flights, professionals from the Israel Mapping
Center arrived at the cemetery to verify whether planes had
indeed changed their flight paths. The sample of 25 planes
belonging to different airlines showed 60 percent continued
to fly over the cemetery. According to these flight path
observations, planes flying to the south of the cemetery
maintained a distance of 50 to 100 meters.
Based on these findings gedolei haposkim ruled that
since it remains impossible to know in advance which planes
pass over the cemetery grounds, the flights are still
forbidden to Kohanim pending a thorough, comprehensive survey
to determine whether certain airlines consistently and
carefully adhere to directives not to fly over the
cemetery.
At present the only foreign flights permitted to Kohanim are
certain night flights to the United States.
|
