Brussels Airlines will resume flights to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, but its plans have met fierce resistance at home. Belgium’s ACV Puls trade union has asked airport workers to refuse to handle these flights, condemning what it calls the “normalisation of relations with Israel” amid the ongoing war in Gaza and military operations in the occupied West Bank.

The pushback is not limited to rhetoric. Baggage handlers at Zaventem Airport have voiced opposition to the airline’s decision, and workers from Alyzia, a baggage handling company, have urged management to end services for Israeli flag carrier El Al and other airlines flying to Israel. In a letter, they demanded that operations only resume once what they call the “genocide in Gaza and the West Bank” comes to an end.

The dispute pits aviation workers’ political conscience against commercial imperatives—and places pressure on Brussels Airlines as it navigates the complex intersection of business, public sentiment, and geopolitics. The episode may also signal broader unrest among European transport workers reluctant to facilitate what they view as complicity in wartime abuses.