Flight attendants on a December 20 QantasLink flight from Melbourne to Hobart, Tasmania wore Palestinian flag pins. One (non-Jewish) passenger reported feeling “incredibly uncomfortable.” Pro-Hamas demonstrators have been out in force, and the passenger says this made them feel unsafe.
A crewmember who was photographed with the pin inflight, and whose photo has gone viral, has vowed to “fight against” this passenger.
The pin was a violation of the airline’s uniform standards, according to Qantas, and the airline says they are reminding crew about this policy.
Cabin crew are not allowed to wear any badges unless they are part of the approved uniform policy. Every customer should feel safe and respected when flying on a Qantas Aircraft.
However pro-Palestinian statements and activism has been common among Qantas flight crew over the past month. On a Qantas low cost carrier Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Ballina, a flight attendant ended their announcement on takeoff with “Free Palestine!” The airline says they investigated and concluded the passenger must have ‘misheard’. Like, maybe the flight attendant was offering everyone on board a free pail of wine?
Meanwhile, an Israeli citizen returning to Brisbane who had friends killed in the October 7 terrorist attacks, reports being told at Qantas check-in that her “government is dropping” as a result of bombs that were being launched by Hamas, and that “It’s terrible what your government is doing.”
In the U.S. we’ve seen passengers removed from aircraft. One thing that I think gets almost universal support is keeping politics off of planes, especially where those around you can’t avoid hearing or seeing it.
As one United pilot put it right after the 2016 presidential election, “When cooler heads prevail and we can talk and realize that we’re all human beings and we can all stick togehter and we can all pull for this country in our own way then that’s what we should do.” The whole cabin cheered.
I wish any airline employee tells me anything when I travel with my israeli passport (convenient over my canadian/us/polish) to travel in some regions
They would really hear it loud and clear from me
Don’t the bolsheviks (who always support the Islmo-nazis naturally) talk about “culture of consequence”? Well…
Keep your politics out of the plane.
these liberals should all be sent to live in an islamist country for 1 year. will be good therapy
Fire the cow. She has no business being flight attendant.
Please review “The Uniform Code” that this EMPLOYEE signed as a condition for her employment.
The answer is there…
Bitch, you fired!
@josh … well said . +1 .
@Doug … like you , I would be personally offended . However , please don’t let those islamist morons affect your peace of mind . They are not worth your rational peace of mind .
These are people making their own trouble. Keep your advocacy out of the work place, What you do on your own time is your business, what you do on company time is everyone’s business.
These people are either dumb or just looking for attention, wearing a pin like that to a job working with the general public? Brilliant!
If you wear the pin, you should be able to speak Arabic with a Palestinian accent. That is what flag pins are for when worn by FAs.
This is really rather simple. The FA violated Qantas policy.
It’s astonishing that people believe they are correct in using their workplace as a forum. Even when it is expressly forbidden by said workplace.
Wear the pin/Flag on your own time. Not on company time.
Period. End of story.
Newsflash. You can be conservative and not be pro Israel. Shocking, I know.
Raif is absolutely right and the flight attendant never should have worn that pin. It has absolutely no business being on a service uniform. Back in the ’60s there were similar disputes with some UPS drivers wearing Black Panther symbols, which resulted in a brief strike, and more recently a deputy sheriff was fired for wearing a Q-Anon badge. But I do find it sadly hilarious how so many on this thread are mixing up religion, politics, nationalism, and economics. Dude26, the last true Bolsheviks were murdered by Stalin, while Islam and Nazism are totally different things, stupidly combined by Bush when he lied his way into a pointless lost war. And incidentally one can be liberal and not pro-Palestine, or be a Jew and not a Zionist either. In the endless, hopeless complexity of the Middle East simplistic labels are worse than useless. But wearing pins where they shouldn’t be doesn’t help either.
Free Palestine!
But… on the job is not the time to advocate that (or any other non-“please-sign-up-for-the-airline-credit-card”) message.
Unless she’d previously been instructed to not wear the pin, I bet she would have maybe gotten a reprimand and a reminder on the uniform policy had she not escalated it to an appeal against the company on social media. Now that she has, would not be surprised if she will be having a career change.
She is immature.
The rulers of palestine are just mobster. They do not want to have a free country. They have rejected any and every deal offered to them for their own country. Now no country around them will take them because of the history of unhinged violence. Despite the yearly billions in international funding Gaza and the west Bank are poor shit holes. Yet Arab Israelis are the most free and well off.
I would be happy with no politics on my airplane or in my travel blogs.
“… reports being told at Qantas check-in that her “government is dropping” as a result of bombs …” Huh?
That POS talking coke machine needs firing, and prosecuting for the calls to “fight against” the person reporting.
“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”: Kris Kristofferson. She should be given her freedom.
That this flight attendant has expressed an opinion (to which she is fully entitled) in an inappropriate manner, is a given. She should have conducted her political advocacy not on company time. Further, advertising this whole episode exhibits somewhat poor sociopolitical judgement.
Her employer will deal with this in accordance with terms and conditions of her employment contract – quite simple, really.
I’d submit her pin is no more than 1 by 1 cm, most would take a cursory look at it, move onto something else – their book, mobile phone, laptop – and not even necessarily recognize that it was the flag of Palestine. I am curious; was the flight attendant vocal in her advocacy? Is that what drew attention to the flag?
I have watched the video, twice – a bit simplistic, and somewhat sensationalist. Perhaps that is how it is in Australia.
The offended party was looking for what? And I can not understand how he would have felt so unsafe? Offended? Absolutely. Unsafe? A bit of a stretch!
I am quite happy to be educated on the unsafe dynamic (preferably via civil discourse).
If she didn’t lose her job over wearing the pin, she should over the threat to a passenger.
@ “Thing 1” You wrote she should lose her job “she should over the threat to a passenger”. I was not aware of any hat threat, was there one? I totally agree that, although she is entitled to her opinion, she should abide by her employer’s policy regarding her uniform. Having said this, I believe that Israel is wrong by exterminating Palestinian women and children who did not have any part on the attack on them, continuing to do it indefinitely and regarding them as just “collateral damage”.
Rick – boo hoo. Hamas started the war. This is what happens. .
Rick if you wouldn’t call “to fight against” a threat you’re either incredibly stupid or so deluged with love for the rapists and murderers who hide underneath hospitals or behind women and children you’ve lost grip with reality.
She shoud be fired… From the cannon onto the moon 🙂
@ Gary Leff
I’m breaking my self imposed silence since this article once again misrepresents events in my home country of Australia, not to mention typifies your accelerating decent into the sensationalist tripe that poses for content on this blog as it circles the drain (as noted recently by an industry heavyweight who requests you don’t quote him).
Whereas you are right to report that the “supposedly offended” passenger is “not Jewish” you should have taken the next step to identify the person and perform even a cursory back check (but you’re far too lazy ever to do any of your own research for this blog just quote and misquote other sources).
It turns out to be this dude is called Harrison Grafanakis:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrison-grafanakis-407501169/details/skills/?detailScreenTabIndex=0
Incidentally, his only endorser on LinkedIn is the right wing local mayor – they’re all part of the same political clique.
That’s right, not Jewish, not Israeli, but….a stooge of our right wing Liberal Party of Australia, in fact, reportedly the president for the state branch of Tasmania of said party.
Now add the right wing gutter press, AKA Sky News. Yes, that’s right the kid, nicknamed Harry Graffa, (apparently a young and politically ambitious Bitcoin biter who even gets his photo taken with former PM Tony Abbott for his efforts) snatches a photo of crew member (incidentally, that’s not allowed) passes said photo onto said gutter press and makes some ridiculous claim that (as a non Jewish and non Israeli person) he was somehow “intimated” on that flight.
Of course said news company merrily circulates the story knowing full well the tenuous premise of its origin.
That is a classic political stunt. Liberal Party supporter promoting the political agenda for his beloved party and doing it against an airline they hate for promoting equality (e.g. same sex marriage – which was ironically supported by key Australian Jewish organisations).
Cue the predictable outrage from the Israeli / Jewish brigade – in the Jerusalem Post the reporting of the supposed incident as now escalating to claims of “angry reactions from Jewish passengers on the plane”. You what? The self promoting non-Jewish kid, Gaffa, just became a citizen collegiate of fictitious folk!
Meanwhile, naturally, Robert Gregory, CEO of the Australian Jewish Association , ratchets up the rhetoric, whilst on the one hand writing blog articles criticising The Australian Government’s UN stance on the proposed ceasefire (in line with the Sky News pro right wing rhetoric against our current government)…
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/australias-government-has-abandoned-israel/
…and on the other demanding the employee be sacked (ironically, despite representing an organisation that claims to promote individual liberty, small government, and the primacy of Australian law).
Now as some media outlets have pointed out, Qantas DOES allow crew members to display such badges in certain circumstances (e.g. when they represent origin and language skills of crew member).
So, if the employee, now subject of an international campaign of personal vilification, is seeking to defend her job, let’s be clear what she’s up against. The person of interest is a non Jewish and Non Israeli politically ambitious office holder of the main right wing opposition party in Australia, aided and abetted by an unscrupulous right wing news organisation and personally victimised by one of our local national Jewish organisations.
Now here’s the remarkably self defeating thing about all of this for people like you Gary Leff in promoting such histrionic nonsense – the everyday local Australians that I interact with are turning against Israel and by default the local jewish community.They are smart enough to recognise the BS rhetoric, the highly biased reporting in right wing media circles, the incessant howling down of any humanitarian concerns raised by the policies of the Israeli government (FWIW most of my Jewish / Israeli friends do not support the current policy of the Israel government).
The Israeli government may be progressing its obvious agenda to engage in mass genocide (how ironic is that), but it isn’t winning the war on the bigger picture of promoting the interests of its people and Jewish people on the international scene. In fact they are destroying their reputation for another generation and you are part of that, my friend, sadly messing it up a treat.
For clarity – I won’t be making any further posts on this topic.
Would these pro-Palestinian flight attendants have the power to kick you off of the plane if they disapproved of your politics (“he made me very uncomfortable with his Zionism”)? And if they did, do you suppose Qantas would support their employees or their customer? I think we all know the answer to both of those questions.
First I thoughts it must have been a pin to show what languages the flight attendant spoke, but when I read on, well saying things like that on the PA. is just well out of order. Termination and a written apology to ALL Qantas passengers is a must.
The idea that an airline crew would utter a peep about ANYTHING on an airplane is insane. Same goes for wearing something that lets people know a crew member’s opinion about ANYTHING. The FA was an idiot and does not the brains to be an FA. The pax in this instance, of course, was just trying to get attention … nobody cares if s/he was uncomfortable on the plane. “You’re uncomfortable? No problem, get off the plane.” I wish people would grow up and exercise their brains instead of clamoring for attention 24/7.
@Platy says the quiet antisemitic part out loud “the everyday local Australians that I interact with are turning against Israel and by default the local jewish community”
Gary
totally correct.
@platy repeats the same anti semitic tropes of history.
points to a very few jews who are leftist liberals or arent even jews as his “evidence”
@ Gary Leff
Your article (yet once again) has been exposed as invalid.
Predictably no comment on that, as ever you fail to defend badly researched content with poor factual basis in the interests of sensationalist trash. Ironically, that repeatedly undermines your creditability and sadly your cause, whatever its merits, which is why industry heavyweights treat you as a pariah, as we have recently discovered.
Now, I’m commenting further only to defend the The Jewish / Israeli people who I knew who do NOT agree with the policy of the Israeli government. Let’s be clear, you are by default characterising them as “anti-semitic” by disagreeing against the Israeli government. Shame on you.
You evidently refuse to countenance that the gross humanitarian violations by the Israeli government, a history of pro-state terrorism in the formative lead up to the 1947 formation, the aggressive land grabs, the illegal settlements, and the current anti Palestinian people policies, which are apparently intent on relocation to the Congo at best and genocide at worst by a PM with the uncertainty of allegations of corruption, have resulted in a rebuttal from almost every country globally – passing ten reactions off that as anti-semitic and thereby somebody else’s responsibility is a refusal to deal with the blatant failures of the Israeli government (aided and abetted by a suppliant US government) and its illegal and violent position.
Refuse to deal with the bigger picture if you like – but seeking to demonise a flight attendant with a national flag pin and you promoting a position that was somehow intimidating to a passenger, when we know now that the supposed victim was a political opportunist with no connection to the Jewish community or Israel sadly typifies you as the blogster opportunist you are, with no regard for fact, reason, refusing to taking any responsibility for the impact of you self aggrandising actions. Just like the twat on the plane who took the picture. Duh!
Maybe it’s time for your employer to audit your blog and rally a call to have you sacked, no matter have tenuous the premise.
This blog has descended into a very sad waste of your intelligence and knowledge.
@platy “Now, I’m commenting further only to defend the The Jewish / Israeli people who I knew who do NOT agree with the policy of the Israeli government.”
I’m not characterizing “them” as antisemitic – you characterized yourself as such. You wrote not about ‘the Jewish people you know’ you wrote:
“the everyday local Australians that I interact with are turning against Israel and by default the local jewish community”
You wrote that dislike of Israel is dislike of Jews. Your words.
Meanwhile I will just highlight this gem from your comment, for what it says about you: “Maybe it’s time for your employer to audit your blog and rally a call to have you sacked”
@platy
maybe it is time you go to live in a country which will appreciate your total anti semitisim.
Gary is simply pointing out the facts.
you said you will not write any more so I hope gary bans you from gthe site.
@ Gary Leff: SAD that you describe anti-war/anti-bombing of innocent protestors as “Pro-Hamas demonstrators.” Pathetic really and part of the broader attempt to paint all that oppose Israel’s unchecked aggression as antisemitic. We are not so please stop!
@ Gregg says:
“@ Gary Leff: SAD that you describe anti-war/anti-bombing of innocent protestors as “Pro-Hamas demonstrators.” Pathetic really and part of the broader attempt to paint all that oppose Israel’s unchecked aggression as antisemitic. We are not so please stop!”
Yes, you are being anti-semitic, but that’s coming from Gary Leff and Josh, so carries all of the flippant éclat of being slapped on the cheek with a wet and limp lettuce leaf, such is the vacancy of their position.
When my mate, who’s the son of two Holocaust survivors has his credentials questioned, you know you are dealing with a couple of fundamentally fckued up people.
But hey, I gave up repeatedly calling out Gary Leff for factually incorrect BS and only made an exception because the article once again misrepresented Australia. This blog is utter trash – remarkably now descended to the level where you’re now Jewish enough is you disagree with the OP or certain commentators – arguably past the point of being redeemable. Yes. SAD.
@platy – nobody called out your anonymous mate, only you, for the things that you wrote here in the comments.
I wonder if these folk heads get so worked up about the Arab women and children who have died in the wars in Syria or other Arab countries during the last couple of years. I guess that collateral damage escaped their sensitivities. The jew haters have selective sensitivities.
no one cares about the tens of thousands of really innocent arabs who have died all over the world . nor about gross violations of human rights especially against women in iran and many other countries. Nor that no arab country accepts palestinians and that they are severely opressed and discriminated against in countries like lebanon. if israleis not involved total disinterest.
@ Gary Leff
” nobody called out your anonymous mate, only you, for the things that you wrote here in the comments.”
Actually, no, Gary.
We are one and the same.
However vacuous and ill-founded the claims you make about me and notwithstanding the censorship of my commentary, it’s my Jewish mates you insult. Regardless, my comments on the inadequacies of your articles will sustain any rational and evidence based analysis.
So basically you are not only fake when it comes to publishing this blog, but also insulting folk from your own clan in the interest of sensationalist response. You know it.
Ironically, you censor my comments (because you are an utter coward by refusing to publish the counter arguments) , but remarkably not the racists and the incels and the various women haters who love your blog – this to your utter shame. Pathetic.
@ Lou Allen
Dunno mate – that my Jewish friends advocate compassion makes them Jew haters?! That Jews who disagree with Israeli policy makes them non Jewish as @Josh would have it? WTF.
@ josh says:
“maybe it is time you go to live in a country which will appreciate your total anti semitisim.
Gary is simply pointing out the facts.you said you will not write any more so I hope gary bans you from gthe site.”
Actually it was you who wrote that Jews who did agree with your world view were not Jewish enough for you – not me.
And no, Gary, is not pointing out the facts, he failed to report the facts in his article above.
Gary has effectively banned me from this site anyway by (1) moderating every comment and (2) refusing to publish any comment that does not accord with his world view.
Ironically, the latter (nothing to do with being Jewish, rather running shit blog) may come back to bite him.
He is not the thought leader he claims to be (he’s lazy and does no research as many others have pointed out), he is not respected by certain heavyweights in the industry (as one such recently pointed out), he does not champion free speech (my comments have repeatedly been deleted because they do not accord with his position and expose his fakery).
He has had opportunity to counter the FACTS I brought into discussion – but he didn’t he reported to the tired IDIOTOPE of accusing me of being anti-semitic to hie his own flaws.
Gary is basically a fake (basing claims on unvalidated and derived information) and a coward (won’t publish my reasoned rebuttals) focuses on sensationalist shit stirring based on material he has gleaned from other websites, EXACTLY, the criticism recently levelled by an industry heavy weight.
@platy “Gary has effectively banned me from this site anyway by (1) moderating every comment and (2) refusing to publish any comment that does not accord with his world view.”
Both of these claims are false.
@platy – I quoted YOU and then you changed the narrative of what you were saying, claiming I was retroactively criticizing someone else. That’s not a game I’m interested in playing.
@ Gary Leff
Stop publishing misrepresentative and vile shite – the evidence is right in the front of your readers.
Now @ Josh says:
“Platy…points to a very few jews who are leftist liberals or arent even jews as his “evidence””
Subsequently @ Gary Leff says
“ nobody called out your anonymous mate, only you, for the things that you wrote”
Are you going to delete this example that deftly exposes your inaccuracy and hypocrisy?
@ Gary Leff says:
“……..@platy “Gary has effectively banned me from this site anyway by (1) moderating every comment and (2) refusing to publish any comment that does not accord with his world view.”…@
“@ GaryBoth of these claims are false.”
STOP LYING GARY LEFF
1) EVERY comment is moderated. Eve3n the comment
2) I have the screen grabs of the comments that I have submitted to PROVE YOU WRONG.
You are not only a FAKE and fundamentally DISHONEST.
It’s up to there readers of your blog now to work that out Bev ute ou are too much of a COWARD to publish rebuttals.
@ Gary Leff
What game ARE you playing, Gary?
Your original article was derivative with no research. If you had done any you would have realised it was all a political beat up. You were TOO LAZY and TOO DUMB to work that out (as per usual) before publishing in your hunt for sensationalist tripe.
You have never addressed that. You have no response.
You side-stepped and defaulted into accusations of anti semitism to defend yourself – PATHETIC
By doing such you insulted my Jewish mates by twisting my comments – SHAME ON YOU.
You refused to publish my clarifications on such, because, well, YOU ARE A COWARD of the worst kind.
You have blithely moderated my counter comments out of existence whilst UTTERLY DISHONESTLY claiming you did no such thing.
Like I said – you’re circling the drain.
@Gary dont waste your time or effort with these people. @Platy has already made his point and repeated it 1000 times. You have patiently responded to him over and over. I am impressed amazed by your tolerance. . Finished. You should remove him so can get back to the main point which is that flight crew should be fired for not following their company policy on such an important issue. You have a great blog so need to do some moderation .
Fired? I am certain you mean an appropriate reprimand (which may, or may not, include termination) as determined by their employment contract?
More airhead FAs. No support from me.