Crew reportedly assigned the band middle seats at the back of the plane, saying ‘this is what they get’ in response to political statements at the song contest

REYKJAVIK—Iceland’s Eurovision entry Hatari is considering legal action against Israel’s airline company El Al for giving them the “worst” seats for their flight home from Tel Aviv, allegedly for their anti-Israel statements, including flying Palestinian flags during the show.

The three members of Hatari, the techno-punk rock band, were each given a middle seat in the back three rows of the flight from Tel Aviv to London after the competition.

In the lead-up to the competition, the band called Israel “an apartheid state”.

The band members were warned by the European Broadcasting Union that they would be disqualified if they included any political statements in their performance.

They held up Palestinian flags and banners later in the show on camera as results were announced, which the EBU said “directly contradicts the contest rules.”

Einar Steffanson, the band’s drummer, shared a post on Instagram from a resident of Haifa who claimed they heard El Al ground crew discussing giving Hatari “the worse seats.”