Elal allows online checkin and seat selection/modification starting from 24 hours before flight-time. Many orthodox Jews fly Saturday night out of Israel to North America. The sabbath ends now at around 8pm and with flights at midnight and 1am, one only has 4-5 hours to do the seat modification and therefore one is left with whatever no one else wants.

I tried doing online checkin on Friday - even at 18:00 for a 1am flight Saturday night and Elal did not allow online checkin. I would have hoped that the unofficial national carrier of Israel would at least accomodate those Jews who observe the Sabbath and allow online checkin up to 36 hours before a Saturday night flight. I guess that is too much to expect in the only Jewish country in the world.