JetBlue called the cops and banned a passenger, cancelling his return flight, after speaking to a flight attendant about another member of the cabin crew who was wearing a Palestine flag pin.
After the flight attendant put on an apron for service and placed only her Palestine flag pin over the apron for service so that her other pins were obscured, but she was making sure this one continued to be visible. The Jewish passenger who was flying to Las Vegas on Sunday noticed the woman allowed the apron to cover up pins including Black Lives Matter.
JetBlue airlines hit with 'anti-Semitism' accusations after calling the police on Jewish passenger and accusing him of causing a 'disturbance' after he complained about flight attendant's Palestine lapel pin https://t.co/WChIvCPEqn pic.twitter.com/N63DRxBmKh
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) April 30, 2024
He spoke to the lead crewmember and expressed that “it was upsetting that she wore that, and that she only changed that pin to the front of the apron, not the others.” He says he was told in response, “okay, I’ll speak with her.”
Nothing more was said during the flight, but a JetBlue employee boarded the aircraft and a flight attendant pointed him out.
‘He goes, ‘Sir! I need to speak with you.’ …’So we go to the top of the ramp. I go, ‘What are you speaking about?’ He said: ‘The disturbance you caused on the airplane.’ I said ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘He said ‘I’m going to need to see your ID. Our pilot called down about the disturbance you caused.’ I said ‘I didn’t cause any disturbance. I’m not giving you my ID.’
‘He said, ‘I’m gonna call Las Vegas Metro PD.’ I said ‘do so.’ So he calls the police and he says ‘I’m standing here with a passenger that caused a disturbance on our flight.’
The passenger left, not waiting for police. Then the TrueBlue member who has held status for 10 years with the carrier discovered that JetBlue cancelled his return flight. An agent over the phone read him notes,
‘That was not true at all,’ he said. ‘I had a conversation with the woman sitting next to me, who brought up the LGBTQ group Queers for Palestine. We had a quiet conversation, not addressing the flight attendant.
‘I said ‘yeah, it’s a bit sad because if they went there, they would be killed.’ I had no communication with the flight attendant, whatsoever.
Reportedly the passenger who sat next to him “confirmed his story.”
It is possible to wear a Palestinian flag and believe you’re advocating for two states. That isn’t usually what it means. One wears the pin to represent “from the river to the sea” Jews will be cleansed, and the land will be Palestinians. At a minimum the frequency with which this message is attached to the symbol means it’s likely to be understood this way.
According to the airline,
JetBlue is committed to providing a respectful and welcoming environment for all our customers and crewmembers.
We are urgently investigating this incident, reaching out to the customer to hear first-hand about their experience and speaking to the crewmembers involved to understand if the actions taken were consistent with our policies and our customer service standards.
To be clear, crewmembers wearing Palestine flag pins is hardly limited to JetBlue. What’s unique in the case of JetBlue is that when a passenger spoke up about their own reaction, the passenger was met by police and their return flight cancelled. The problem here isn’t speech, it’s asymmetric speech (free speech for me, but not for thee, much as on college campuses where speech is currently loudest from those with a privileged place in the oppression hierarchy).
Last time we checked @Delta, your airlines is American based with no flights to “Palestine”.
Why is your employee at Ronald Reagan Airport wearing a Palestinian flag? pic.twitter.com/qyguQ7KLWn
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 1, 2024
There’s this weird idea that’s somehow become popular about ‘bringing your whole self to work.’ That’s dumb. I certainly don’t bring my whole self to the office, it’s work not friends and family, and it’s a place to be professional. We’re there to do a job not to kibbitz.
It’s far more problematic at an airline. At an office there’s both self-selection and employer selection that tends to create common ground among employees in a given workspace. Air travel brings people together from all walks of life, having good days and bad days, and traps them inside of a metal tube for hours at a time. That can already be combustible.
Even more challenging is when disagreements are between passengers and crew, because of the power disparity between them under the law.
- The FAA reauthorization bill increases the maximum penalty for passengers violation aviation regulations from $25,000 to $75,000 and make the same penalties that apply to interfering with security screening personnel extend to airport and airline personnel “performing ticketing, check-in, baggage claim, or boarding functions.”
- 49 USC § 44902 provides broad latitude, within certain bounds laid out by the FAA, for the captain of an aircraft to refuse transportation to a passenger if they feel that passenger might be “inimical to safety.” While passengers don’t have to obey crewmember instructions on any and all subjects unrelated to safety, failure to follow any instruction or simply making a crewmember ‘feel unsafe’ is enough for a captain to toss a passenger regardless of whom is at fault.
Bringing crewmember politics onto the aircraft, and forcing passengers to remain silent in response under threat of both airline and legal sanction, is certainly one choice for an airline to make.
Of course passengers get kicked off for their attire – whether for ‘not enough’ attire or because the messages they’re wearing are deemed offensive, whether it’s F-12 in the aftermath of George Floyd or F-cancer after completing treatment.
I believe that as a uniformed employee, AT WORK, ought to be limited to wearing authorized “uniform parts” ONLY. I simply think that “non-regulatory” pins, etc., should not be allowed on crew members WHILE THEY WORK; before and after, fine, but not on the plane. The crew is there to do a job, not “advocate” their personal beliefs or “stands.”
Heading down to the kitchen to fire up the popcorn…
Newsflash, Richard, crews and employees are human beings with human feelings. A culture shift from the millennial generation to stand up for what’s right? I celebrate that. I bring my whole self to work to stand up for the rights of my friends and colleagues.
With respect to Jews and Israelis, I’ve worked with many in my career, and they have a cultural tendency to antagonize even when they don’t even realize it. The Jewish passenger on this JetBlue flight may have lacked self awareness to realize the disturbance he caused.
Is the Palestinian national flag banned in Israel? It’s most certainly not banned in any country where I’ve lived or spent more than 6 months on the ground.
As long as the airline allows national flag pins, the Palestinian flag pin-wearer wasn’t the problem on the flight. The problem on the flight in this circumstance was the annoyed passenger triggered by a national flag.
“Queers for Palestine” – oh, you mean the “Chickens for KFC” folks. LOL.
But, seriously now – this FA seems to be a good fit for the pro-terror, pro-Islamonazi crowd since she’s lying through her teeth about the passenger, and if she’s a “queer, black, socialist” etc etc what is she doing aligning herself with Arab nationalists and Islamo-nazis? That’s queer alright.
I would not feel safe with someone deranged like this as a crew member on board.
An old Zionist slogan, envisaged statehood extending over the two banks of the Jordan river, and when that vision proved impractible, it was substituted by the idea of a Greater Israel, an entity conceived as extending from the Jordan to the sea.[10][11] The Palestinian phrase has also been used by Israeli politicians. The 1977 election manifesto of the right-wing Israeli Likud party said: “Between the sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”[12][13][14] Similar wording, such as referring to the area “west of the Jordan river”, has also been used more recently by other Israeli politicians,[3] including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 18 January 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
“free speech for me, but not for thee, much as on college campuses where speech is currently loudest from those with a privileged place in the oppression hierarchy”?
The privileged place is occupied by the big donors and the right-wing elements that get favorable coverage from law enforcement and institutional authorities much like the bigoted mobs in India do while crying about “appeasement of privileged minorities” as part of the effort to silence and disappear opposition and status quo power-dynamic challenging minorities.
Last I heard, weren’t something like a majority of Americans not fans of the Israeli-Palestinian war being waged by the extremist Netanyahu regime that wants to silence America’s peaceful anti-war protesters?
Hey, it’s good to know who is cool with terrorist raping and slaughtering innocent people for being jewish. And, DL and JetBlue are to be congratulated for being so open about allowing horrible people to out themselves. Including the manager at JetBlue who called the cops on someone who dared to disagree with support for the 10/8 slaughter. How dare he?
High class professional says Jews have a tendency to antagonize. Please expand on that.
@High Class – get over yourself. Employees represent the company and most companies have very strict rules on what employees can and can not wear at least in customer facing roles. No way the FA should be allowed to wear the pin (or a BLM in either) as that may turn off some customers. It isn’t about their “whole self” or their briefs – it is about representing the company they work for (quit if you don’t like it) and serving a broad range of customers with differing beliefs.
That said – @Gary I seriously doubt this occurred as the passenger said and as you repeated. I realize you are Jewish and likely to side with him but I seriously doubt a simple request, in a quiet voice with no follow up would get this response. Maybe he insisted or continued to raise it to FAs or other passengers. Maybe he acted in some way, without speaking, to the FA wearing the pin. Just saying don’t ever believe 1 side of a story, especially one you are likely biased to believe anyway.
@High class professional – bringing “whole self to work to stand up for the rights…” blah-blah-blah…
This definitely makes you low-class and shows non-professional behavior. Nobody cares about you and your “self”. Leave it at home , and come to work to do a job, not to advocate about rights of your friends, family, neighbors, etc.
It is a UNIFORM. I realize it’s 2024 and words either mean nothing or too much, but it means that everyone is dressed the same for work.
So I think we need to do away with all these flight attendant pins. Lanyards demanding a new contract, gay rainbow pins, Palestine pins etc. These things have nothing to do with your job and it’s now causing problems. That man is a paying, loyal client, and deserves to not have to see your views displayed on your UNIFORM.
I have the same problem with the NBA where guys are wearing pink shoes with a blue and white uniform. Draymond Green wearing neon green shoes with the Warriors color scheme for instance. There’s no green (other than him lol).
End of rant.
Imagine what would happen if someone wore a KKK or Condeferate flag pin and pointed it out to this particular flight attendant. I don’t think it would end so well for the passenger. And yes, GUtless Wonder, the KKK or Condeferate flag is not banned in the US, but they are rightly looked upon as undesirable by most people, even if they are looked at differently by a small minority. The same can be said of Palestine.
As Michael Jordan noted, Republicans buy sneakers, too. Jews fly. You want to go demonstrate off-duty, be my guest. JetBlue wants to let it’s employees state political views on the job, either they let passengers comment back or they risk boycotts. It’s a stupid move on the part of financially distressed airline, especially in the NY market.
It’s not really that complicated. If you wear a Palestine Flag pin with the purpose of antagonizing Jewish passengers – and the fact that she put it over the apron is evidence of this – then she is not only antisemitic but also rude and unkind. The fact that passenger was ejected is in my mind further proof of discriminatory intent and treatment.
One wonders how this FA would feel as a passenger if a crew member wore a lapel pin of the apartheid South African Flag? I doubt a Brunei lapel pin would have been welcomed – if people knew what it looked like – when it was having its moment of ostracism for laws persecuting gay people.
Sometimes a flag is just a flag, but sometimes it’s not. The fact that you can still buy Apartheid Lapel pins for a country that – like Palestine – doesn’t exist, is proof that it’s value is more about antagonizing others than showing patriotism. Try and fly today’s Vietnamese flag in Garden Grove California or the PRC Flag in New York Chinatown, and you will quickly understand.
“With respect to Jews and Israelis, I’ve worked with many in my career, and they have a cultural tendency to antagonize even when they don’t even realize it. ”
Really? Jews have a “cultural tendency to antagonize”? I wasn’t aware of that. One might even call such stereotyping antagonistic.
Many people are opposed to the far-right faction of the Israeli government and its war-criminal treatment of innocent (not the Hamas) Palestinians.
That is not the same as being “anti-Semitic” in the normal sense of being anti-Jewish, which I regard as wrong.
Well, that all went pear shaped quickly children didn’t it
An aircraft cabin should be like Switzerland….Neutral.
And the FAA and airlines management should ensure they remain so.
Very simple:
Boycott Jet Blue!
They’ll never see a booking from me or my family.
As I always stated, you are on an aircraft, you can stay neutral and non-controversial during flight, when back on the ground continue whatever your free speech affords you.
Businesses that deal with the public need to maintain a dress code and an appropriate code of conduct. Wearing a Palestinians pin on the job is an obviously bad idea.
“High-class professional” is so off with the comment that says “With respect to Jews and Israelis, I’ve worked with many in my career, and they have a cultural tendency to antagonize even when they don’t even realize it.”
Maybe when you’re inclined to see things through antagonistic stereotyping lenses, you see what you want to see.
Your way of seeing things isn’t how I see things. There is more diversity within any cultural group than there is between cultural groups. Also, if your experience is limited primarily to crowded urban centers with lots of stressed out people in a stressed out environment — self-selection dynamics being what they are to some extent — that may have an impact on behavior regardless of religious or national identities.
Agree with Richard. Outside work hours, advocate to your heart’s content. Sadly, people use our freedoms to demonstrate some disappointing behaviors, but on the job, especially in such close proximity, give it a rest. You’ll be off the plane and away from the airport in no time and can freely express your views in a way that does not unnecessarily reflect bad on your employer or upset fellow passengers on either side of the political aisle.
I think there’s more to this story that we’re not hearing.
Being anti zionist, anti-fascist, anti-BLM, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-communist it does not bother me what kind of flag any flight attendant is wearing. The only thing that matter is the efficiency of the service at the cabin.
Even that I hate some flags and pins, I focus on the relevant things. There is a huge difference for being anti-zionist and anti-semitist but for some “reason” both are converted to anti-semitism card to get “the victim” treament. I am hardcore anti-zionist but not at all anti-semitist.
Palestine flag is an official flag of the state which has been recognized more than 100 countries and more to come. Period
“With respect to Jews and Israelis, I’ve worked with many in my career, and they have a cultural tendency to antagonize even when they don’t even realize it. ”
I know right? Maybe we should give them their own seats, entrances and water fountains where they antagonize less.
I can’t believe I just read this crap. I can’t believe a lot of the things I have seen in relation to this. I’ve spent my life learning about it in books and B&W videos. Seeing all this first hand- I guess I have been lucky to have lived in the time that I have.
S–t’s getting scary again.
Flair @ work
https://www.facebook.com/ThatMorningStar/videos/527509524694162/
The placement of the pins says all we need to know.
I’m not surprised his return ticket got cancelled–the airline no doubt got a very wrong report of what happened.
And what is consistently forgotten about freedom of speech is that it protects you from government restrictions, not from private parties. It is completely reasonable for an airline to say no political speech while on the job–and given the descriptions of the pins that’s clearly political speech.
I’ve always found it comical and really sad that the “anti fascist” student/protesters
crowd are the most fascist. Much like the SA brown shirts of 1934 Germany they will be the first ones eliminated. Once their handlers take control
Switzerland isn’t really neutral nowadays — if it really ever were in our lifetimes.
With regard to Chuck M/C_M/whatever, despite his wishes in his prayers and whatever else, the Palestinian national flag is recognized as a national flag by many countries today and a seemingly growing number of countries at that in the last decade. Your KKK and Confederate flags are recognized as national flags by any country today? Didn’t think so. Next issue, old dude.
The passenger should be having conversations with his attorney. The airline’s corporate-speak legal-talk reply suggests a settlement in the offing. “We are trying to understand” is just about always legalese for “We screwed up and are hoping to mitigate the consequences.”
All these snowflakes freaking out about a national flag pin on a uniform at an employer that allows national flag pins.
@E Douglas Jensen –
I wasn’t a fan of the current Israeli administration. It’s no secret why the politics of Israel were driven away from peacemakers like Yitzak Rabin, Ehud Olmert, and Ehud Barak. Their proposals to create an independent Palestinian state and to swap current Israeli land to include in that state were met with violence. Netanyahu is the direct result of Palestinian violence. And October 7th was clearly meant to blow up peace in the region, with Israel and Saudi Arabia on the verge of normalized relations.
It’s hard to know during war who is a civilian and who is a combatant when Hamas hides amongst civilians and uses them as human shields. Civilian casualties are common in war. At the Battle of Normandy alone ~ 20,000 French civilians were killed by Allied bombings of French cities and villages.
Combatants hiding amongst civilians is indeed a war crime. Yet the International Criminal Court considers arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, when it never did so even for.. Bashar al-Assad.
It is disheartening to watch what’s happening now. It’s also hard to know, really, what’s happening or know what Gazans believe. Certainly polls suggest they’ve been supportive of Hamas, but is that because they’d be killed if they said otherwise? Regardless, their direct oppressor is Hamas. Israel has a right to eliminate that threat. And as long as they hide amongst the populace there’s probably no other way to do this.
Hamas, meanwhile, still holds civilian hostages – including Americans.
I guess just openly stating that you think Jews deserve to be raped and beheaded, which is what the “Palestinian flag” symbol means, is about the only way that flight attendants can become more antagonistic to passengers. Kudos to this coke machine for finding new and innovative ways to break the SHUT UP AND POUR THE DRINKS rule and be part of the most useless profession on earth.
What’s more absurd calling the cops because someone complained about a ping
Or feeling threatened/insulted because someone choose to wear a pin?
I don’t know but I though this was travel blog / credit card sales page. Not a geopolitical / free speech blog.
Any political pins or advocacy pins don’t belong on a uniform. This should be common sense. And any airline should reprimand it’s employees for promoting their own opinions via pins. (Just alone because it goes against the concept of the uniform).
@raif, I couldn’t agree more with you. Moreover, as a Jew, I’ll add that a JetBlue employee wearing an Israeli flag on their uniform is a bad idea too. The only pin a JetBlue employee should be wearing is a JetBlue pin.
We need to have a talk about your flair…. IYKYK
The same college campuses that clamor free speech for them, but immediately race to disinvite, protest or cancel any conservative speakers because god forbid they may have to listen to an opinion different than the one they already have. Full disclosure, I’m very liberal. But I’m not a snowflake.
The last time free speech actually existed on a college campus was when Arthur Butz published his holocaust denialism.
I don’t think that someone who works for the public can see you should have on any other attire than their work attire.
I see many comments taking issue with my remark on Jews and Israelis.
It’s not a pleasant truth to confront, but it is true. GUWonder wonders if it’s because I’m interacting with Jewish people in urban environments. That’s a non-issue. All Swedes and Japanese people in the same environments have been unfailingly polite, diplomatic, and deferential.
Nobody would take issue with an assertion that Swedish and Japanese people are very polite.
I am so sick of this never-ending garbage regarding the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine. If ignorant Americans want to ‘declare themselves’ in public, it should be viewed properly … it’s none of your business, nothing to see here, move on. If an airline employee asks to see your identification, you produce it … what reason do you have for not complying with a simple request if you haven’t done anything wrong?
The fact that every statement here that starts with “it’s not anti-Semitic to be anti-Zionist” ends with “and that’s why all Jews have bad personalities and the Holocaust didn’t happen” really says it all about what allowing “anti-Zionists” to police their own boundaries leads to and what the “pro-Palestinian” pin represents.
I have worked for many companies and they all do not allow political pins or expressions when you are on the job because it reflects on the company.
“It is possible to wear a Palestinian flag and believe you’re advocating for two states. That isn’t usually what it means. One wears the pin to represent “from the river to the sea” Jews will be cleansed, and the land will be Palestinians. At a minimum the frequency with which this message is attached to the symbol means it’s likely to be understood this way.”
Maybe reconsider whether you really need to use your air travel blog to wade into the nuanced and deeply emotional topic of what various national flags mean to different observers of other nationalities.
JetBlue should fire that flight attendant. JetBlue has a history of firing employees who post on their private Facebook profile their political views because a customer stalked an employees Facebook, got their feelings hit and turned it into JetBlue. JetBlue gets too involved in politics and their HR only targets those who have different views. I stand by this customer 100% and JetBlue does target and discriminates.
Palestine is a terrorist state, funded by Iran to take out Israel (won’t happen). Anyone wearing that pin is supporting such a movement. I do not think anyone should be wearing any flags to work unless its the flag carrier they fly for. JetBlue is an American carrier and that is the only flag that would be fit to fly.
@High class professional – word to the wise, the first rule of holes – when you’re in one, stop digging. The more you write the more ridiculous you sound. Did you just land here from 1860? Please just stop. And this is from someone who is neither Jewish nor Palestinian.
I am tempted to believe the passenger’s story, as I have seen similar events take place in the past. Additionally, JetBlue Airways is the only place I ever worked where I experienced antisemitism from both passengers and fellow crewmembers. I would not be at all surprised if they tried to cover this up.
For an elevated, thoughtful, and elite travel experience, please consider Delta.
“high class professional” says that Swedes encountered are uniformly polite. As someone who spends a bunch of time and then some in the country, I see rudeness quite often. But maybe it’s because I am an old school American and have that as the basis of my standards for judging politenesss.