Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-468 . Photo: Wikipedia.

New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is ratcheting up pressure on Saudi Arabian Airlines after the airline rejected his office’s demand to alter its policy discriminating against Israeli citizens attempting to fly the airline out of the U.S.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the heads of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, De Blasio urged them “to take necessary steps to bar Saudi Arabian Airlines from operating at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport, respectively, if the airline does not immediately end its discrimination against Israeli passengers on the basis of national origin.”

Following a probe of the airline that revealed Saudi Arabian airlines would not allow Israeli citizens to fly out of JFK, De Blasio said he would take steps to exclude it from the American market if it did not change its policy.

In his letter sent Wednesday, De Blasio said that because the airline conducts business in New York and Washington D.C. “it is subject to all relevant local, state and federal laws. Moreover, according to Article 4 of the United States-Saudi Arabia Air Transport agreement signed May 28, 2013, airline permissions may be revoked, suspended or limited if the airline has ‘failed to comply with the laws’ of the United States.”