The US airline industry is implementing what a Democratic member of Congress calls an effective boycott of Israel by suspending all direct flights following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks.

More than a year after the Hamas attacks, as the war between Israel and Iranian-backed terrorist groups in the region continues, no major U.S. airlines fly directly from the United States to Israel. Travelers leaving the United States can only take a direct flight to the Jewish state via Israeli airline El Al. Meanwhile, airlines from Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates continue to fly there.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., described this as an effective boycott in a letter to CEOs of American, United and Delta in August.

“My understanding is that to travel to Israel, your only option is El-Al, which is increasing prices. So the lack of availability of air travel by (US airlines) has led to increased prices. It has that air travel to Israel is much less accessible and affordable for Americans, which is fundamentally unfair,” Torres told Fox News Digital.

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An El Al Israel Airlines Boeing 737-800 landing in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2023. (Fabrizio Gandolfo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Torres said in his letter that “the lack of competition has made air travel to Israel less available and less affordable, putting customers at the mercy of a de facto monopoly.”

Fox News Digital reached out to El Al for comment but they did not immediately respond.

Unlike in 2014, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered all US airlines to suspend flights to Israel due to safety concerns amid rocket fire towards Tel Aviv, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines They have decided on their own to stop all direct flights. flights from the US to Israel since the October 7, 2023 attacks, without an FAA order.

Since August, Torres said his office has had conversations with airlines, but has not received a written explanation about the reasons for suspending direct flights to Israel.

“If the FAA were to conclude that it is too dangerous to travel to Israel, then every plane would have to undergo the FAA safety evaluation. The problem is that the FAA has not said anything. The silence has been deafening,” Torres told Fox News digital. “If the war ended tomorrow, why would it be necessary to extend the suspension until 2025? And that is why the suspension of air travel from the United States to Israel has been so long and so widespread that it has the practical effect of a boycott.”

“US planes have done far more damage to the Israeli economy than the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel could ever dream of. And I am concerned that without an FAA safety assessment, without an objective process , a dangerous process occurs. A precedent has been set in the politicization of air travel, in its use as a weapon as a means to boycott Israel and it is a powerful tool for the boycott,” Torres said. “In what universe and by what logic is it too dangerous for American Airlines, United and Delta to travel to Israel? But is it safe for UAE airlines to do so? As if something is rotten in the state of the American aviation industry “.

Torres said he described it as a “boycott in effect” and not an actual boycott because he can’t speak to the companies’ intent, but he indicated it’s possible the BDS movement was involved.

“There was a concerted effort by the BDS movement to penetrate every sector, every industry of the American economy in the service of boycotting, divesting from and sanctioning Israel. And so there is no reason to think – it would be naive to think – that the BDS movement American aviation industry is immune to the increased pressures of BDS,” Torres said, speaking generally.

“If air travel to a US ally like Israel is going to be suspended indefinitely, then the public is owed an explanation,” Torres added. “I mean, the United States is home to the largest Jewish population in the world, possibly second only to Israel. So we owe American Jews an explanation for why (US airlines) have indefinitely suspended air travel to Israel.” .

When asked about this, a United Airlines spokesperson simply told Fox News Digital: “Our flights to Tel Aviv remain suspended; we hope to resume flights as soon as it is safe for our customers and crew.”

The statement did not explain why the flights were suspended.

““Delta continually monitors the evolving security environment and evaluates our operations based on security guidance and intelligence reports and will communicate any updates as necessary,” a Delta spokesperson told Fox News Digital. El Al is a Delta airline partner.

The FAA said in a statement to Fox News Digital that it “has not instructed airlines to suspend flights to Israel.”

“Airlines make their own independent decisions regarding flight schedules based on their corporate security risk assessments, among other factors,” an FAA spokesperson said. “The Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) reflects the alert issued by the Israeli government.”

Fox News Digital also reached out to American Airlines but did not receive a response.

A United Airlines plane passes two El Al aircraft after arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport on December 2, 2023, in Newark, New Jersey. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images/Getty Images)

After seeing Torres’ letter, Anat Alon-Beck, a corporate law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, told Fox News Digital that she has been investigating whether there is an effort to “mislead interested parties, shareholders and regulatory agencies” regarding the true motivations of American airlines to suspend direct flights to the Jewish State.

“Is it really a safety issue, or are there other motivations, for example political biases? Is there some bias coming from directors, management, perhaps radical union pressure?” Alon-Beck said. “So I really don’t know what’s going on. And we have a responsibility to look at that because companies have fiduciary obligations. And if companies incur financial losses, if shareholders are going to be affected, then companies in those situations might be responsible for damages if it is not really revealed what is happening.

The professor said she is evaluating whether there is anti-Semitic pressure that drives discrimination against Israel.

“And if that’s the case, then we have anti-BDS laws, we have other laws, and companies should really consider the profit motive and not submit to political pressure,” he said. “And so really our intention is to monitor the behavior of companies and hold them accountable.”

Mark Goldfeder, executive director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told Fox News Digital that he has seen “airline unions introduce BDS initiatives into their bargaining agendas, which obviously results in illicit practices and coercion, for example, in terms of our conversation.”

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“The union has used BDS-related demands to pressure management at certain airlines to alter flight routes or suspend business relationships or review operational policies related to Israel. And that coercion undermines management authority and forces to make decisions based on political agendas rather than legal business agendas,” Goldfeder said, without specifying which unions he was referring to.

An ultra-Orthodox Jew checks the departure schedule at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on September 29, 2024, amid cross-border clashes with Hezbollah. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)

As Torres noted in his letter, Goldfeder agreed that “of course, it is appropriate for airlines to suspend service based on safety concerns as defined by the FAA,” but the current situation “was imposed by the airlines themselves without any order.” or directive of the US Department of State or the Federal Aviation Administration.”

“At this point, we cannot say with certainty that airlines are definitively discriminating against Israel as a matter of policy.” Ben Schlager, senior attorney at the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told Fox News Digital. “What we do know is that airlines are facing waves of pressure within their own organizations regarding Israel and routes to Israel. That comes from the job, from their employees, and that manifests itself in their treatment of passengers. passengers and to Hebrew. Jewish and English-speaking employees of these airlines.

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“Certainly, at this point, it is fair to raise the question about the exceptionality of the Israeli exclusion from the flights, if these two things are related,” Schlager added. “In the end, no one benefits because the only ones most affected are obviously the passengers and the shareholders. And this has already proven to be, at least for some of these airlines, a costly decision for their shareholders.”