About 300 Jewish people headed to DC Israel rally left stranded by 'PEACEFUL' bus drivers staging ‘deliberate and malicious’ walkout
https://nypost.com/2023/11/14/news/jewish-ralliers-stranded-by-bus-drivers-who-staged-walkout-in-dc/Hundreds of Jewish people headed to Tuesday’s pro-Israel rally in DC were left stranded when bus drivers staged “a deliberate and malicious walk-off,’’ a major Jewish organization said.
The “anti-protest” left a chartered flight from Detroit — about 300 people — on the Dulles Airport tarmac for about 11 hours before they were sent back home, causing them to miss the entire March for Israel event.
“I thought it was nuts, I thought it was crazy that we’re blocked from getting to the rally,” Jonathan Kaufman told The Post, adding that there were “frantic” calls to find out what was happening as they were stranded for hours.
“Our right to assembly is a constitutional right — and this was straight-up blocking that.”
Kaufman and 900 others hopped on three private planes out of Detroit chartered by the Jewish Federation of Detroit, which also booked several buses to transport the massive group to the march at DC’s National Mall.
A third of the passengers weren’t allowed to leave the tarmac, however, after several buses failed to show up on the tarmac upon their 10:30 a.m. landing, according to a federation spokesperson.
7 Group photo from Jonah Seinfeld-Chopp on the tarmac at Dulles International Airport as Jewish ralliers were left stranded.Jonah Seinfeld-Chopp
The drivers had organized a “mass sick-out” day to prevent Jewish ralliers from attending the much-anticipated march, leaving just a handful available to meet their obligations.
“We have learned from the bus company that this was caused by a deliberate and malicious walk-off of drivers,” the spokesperson told The Post.
The bus company — which the federation repeatedly refused to name — told the Jewish Federation of Detroit that a “significant number” of drivers called out sick when they learned they would be taking hundreds of Jewish Americans to the pro-Israel rally, the organization’s David Kurzmann told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.
“In the way that this action prevented proud Jewish Americans from exercising their freedom to speak, protest, assemble gathered today at the nation’s capital, that to me was a malicious act. It was an act targeting the Jewish community as far as their participation in this rally,” Kurzmann said.
7 Shari Ferber Kaufman and Jonathan Kaufman on the chartered plane they took to the Dulles International Airport.Jonathan Kaufman
Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations CEO William Daroff, one of the March for Israel organizers, also confirmed that the “bus drivers refused to take them to a pro-Israel event.”
Those who were left behind spent roughly three hours on the tarmac before they were finally funneled into several buses — from which they were swiftly ejected after it turned out the buses weren’t for their group.
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