An airline that gets US taxpayer dollars for security has wiped Israel from its flight map.
The US Department of Homeland Security spends $425,000 annually on a preclearance customs facility for Etihad Airways, a partner of American Airlines, at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The facility fast-tracks Abu Dhabi travelers to the United States by allowing them to clear customs more easily and bypass long lines.
But the carrier, owned by the United Arab Emirates, has an official travel-route map that shows all surrounding countries, including Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus — but not the Jewish state or its major cities.
Etihad also has refused to transport any Israelis, who aren’t allowed in the UAE. In 2010, it even began teaching its flight agents how to identify Israeli travelers by their “accents and traits,” the BBC has reported.
Etihad is the sole airline that provides service between Abu Dhabi and US cities, including New York, Chicago and Washington.
Justin Ross Lee, a Jewish travel expert from Manhattan, fumed that taxpayer money is supporting an airline that discriminates.
“As a frequent flier who holds both US and Israeli passports, I would sooner donate my miles to Hezbollah than travel on Etihad Airways,” said Lee, 30, referring to the terror group.
“I’d probably be interrogated less.”
Last May, US senators blasted then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano for funding the facility. They noted Etihad would be the only carrier to benefit from the facility, which opened in January and handles fewer than 1,000 travelers a day.
“We question whether the department is choosing preclearance locations based on risk or based on a pay-to-play process,” the 11 senators wrote to Napolitano.
An American Airlines and Etihad rep didn’t respond to requests for comment.
State Department rep Peter Boogaard said, “DHS doesn’t condone discrimination of any kind, and a preclearance agreement in no way suggests support for any specific airline or policy.”
The UAE is one of the 34 countries with no diplomatic relations with Israel.