Washington attorney, Jeffrey A. Lovitky, has written to Saudi Arabian Airlines to request it “immediately discontinue its practice of refusing to sell tickets to persons of Israeli nationality”. Saudi Arabia does not allow Israeli nations to enter and as such the airline’s website makes it compulsory for every passenger to identify their nationality from a dropdown list that reflects every nationality, except for Israeli, thereby making it impossible for an Israeli citizen to purchase a ticket.
Lovitky argues that although Saudi Arabia can deny visas to Israeli citizens, the kingdom’s own rules do not require a visa if the passenger is traveling through Saudi Arabia en route to another location for example. Therefore, he states that Saudi Arabian Airlines refusal to sell tickets to Israeli nationals, regardless of which country they are going to, violates a number of anti-discrimination requirements in the United States.
Copies of the letter also went to the Department of State, Department of Transportation, the Saudi Arabian Embassy and others.