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.
@Arturo S. The problem is that human coke machines don’t view themselves as “working for the company,” they view the company as a service that pays them to take free flights for some magic reason. They see customers as equivalent to random strangers who intruded onto their vacation and demanded they do waitress work for them, and deserve to be punished for it. As such they don’t take into consideration what “reflects on the company” or what is “appropriate at work” and think no more of enforcing their shitty politics on people than they would about putting a bumper sticker on their own car. As always, the issue is the fundamental stupidity of flight attendants and their misunderstanding of what their job (or indeed what “a job”) is, and the need to fire all of them and start over to fix the culture.
@Arturo, Exactly so! I am free to engage in the political causes I care about on my own time. I am not free to use my company’s time or wear my employer’s uniform (well, we don’t have a uniform, but it’s even more important for those who do) to express my personal views, especially on issues that will offend many of those we need to relate to. And especially it’s wrong when in a role that exercises censorial power over people who simply want to fly from A to B.
A bunch of airlines rooted in the “free world” allow national flags on pins worn by employees. The Palestinian flag being one ought to be fine in a world where it should be just as fine to wear an Israeli flag pin.
It’s quite interesting to see how limited respect for freedom of expression and speech really are when it comes to that from people peacefully opposed to violence against a subjugated people and not engaged in violence (unless and until subjected to violence themselves and often not even then).
In a company that is suppose to treat all customers with equal dignity, wearing political pins or other political things should be strictly forbidden. In this case, the flight attendant should be given time off and the supervisor at the gate should be fired. Without the flight being diverted, I doubt that there was much of a disturbance.
“Palestine” is the blm of this year.
All the same morons who cried about Floyd are crying about the so called “genocides” in “Palestine”. A month ago these same people didn’t know where to find it on the map. For them it’s just a way to hate on white people and their view of them killing “brown people”. The sad thing is greenblatt and his adl created this culture and now is reaping the benefits of it.
@GUW I’ve read you for many many years now here and FT. I am truly surprised to see you fail to comprehend there is no free speech protection for or from anyone or anything except the government.
A customer facing person at any company, uniformed or not, should not be displaying anything that the company would not openly and vocally endorse, as with its own brand and marketing.
It is inappropriate, and from a business perspective, foolish, to allow country flags, cause pins, Union promos, hell, I don’t even think they should be able to display religious pins/jewelry . I support some of the things they pin on themselves, I don’t support others. It’s irrelevant to the argument. None of it should be displayed to customers unless it’s the official directive of the company.
It’s just a country pin? Yes, and I’m sure if you wear Israeli pins you’ll find a different set of offended customers. It’s pretty simple. It’s a business: try not to offend customers.
I do not believe in the Palestinian cause.
Flight attendants should be allowed to wear objectionable pins.
Free speech is a good thing.
The question is where the line is? 1 pin? 2 pins? 53 pins?
Passengers should keep their mouths shut about these things and let supervisors handle them
I would not vote for Netanyahu but it is frankly STUPID when commenters (whether in magazines or Thomas Friedman in the NYT) act as if all israel actions in the war are a result of Bibi. He has historically been one of the more cautious Israeli leaders.
The current war government is a coalition with the Right, Center and Left.
The conduct of the war and Foreign policy reflects national consensus.
Ignoring these facts betray the shallowness of the analysis on offer.
Of course there is only one side of the story of the loser who was offended by a flag.
Probably did cause a disturbance and is now crying foul.
Good on Jetblue for not being intimidated by a disturbance-causing idiot, who when called out for it, pulled the race card
1) It looks like you’re operating with only one side of the story while presenting it as the whole story.
2) I think that people should keep their political, religious, and ethnic opinions separate from their work. It’s the same insipid idea as political yard signs. Have you ever changed your mind on a subject because the neighbors had a yard sign for a certain candidate? Of course not, because all those signs do is anger people who disagree with you or encourage people who already agree with you. They do nothing constructive and neither do the relevant pins.
I doubt she’ll be able to wear it at McDonald’s where she’s going to end up working after private equity picks JetBlue clean.
Employees are paid to do a job. Not to wear their political beliefs on themselves.
Too much of this hurts everyone
@GUWonder – I agree there is “limited respect for freedom of expression” generally. I am concerned with governments restrict it. I long for the days when the ACLU championed speech, such as the Skokie case and the right of Nazis to march.
I’m not sure it’s always appropriate in the workplace.
I wouldn’t crack down on campus protests except to the extent that they interfere with the function of the university, preventing classes from being held etc. I do think it is appropriate to criticize ‘asymmetric free speech’ where only those with status within the campus community as oppressed see their rights protected.
@Gary: This “Their proposals to create an independent Palestinian state and to swap current Israeli land to include in that state were met with violence”
Want to tell me about the violence that ended Yitzhak Shamir’s attempt at a peace deal with the Palestinians? No? I can’t imagine why not, given how condemnatory of violence you are.
I’m also impressed by how many people are just *sure* they know what the flag pin was supposed to mean.
Everybody in this story looks like an idiot: the passenger for complaining about a pin and JetBlue for tossing him off.
Sorry, missed this post:
“where only those with status within the campus community as oppressed see their rights protected.”
Yes, I note how protestors at Columbia, Austin, and various other spots are having their rights protected by police batons.
@Total – I think you’re confusing your Yitzhaks… I was talking about Rabin
” I think you’re confusing your Yitzhaks… I was talking about Rabin”
I’m not confusing anything. What happened to Shamir, Gary?
“I’m not confusing anything. What happened to Shamir, Gary?”
Well, shoot. Yes, I am confusing them. Sigh. Never mind.
Count me in skeptical-the-story-played-out-as-told camp. Even in these charged times it’s hard to imagine police being called for the behaviors the passenger described.
Also, in general, the phrase “free speech” is making it into conversations around these issues far more often than is appropriate, this post included. There is no legal presumption of free speech on a private company’s airplanes just as there isn’t on a private college’s lawn. As you allude to at the end, airlines have pretty broad discretion as to what kind of speech to allow on their planes, of which discretion they certainly make use.
Question the airline’s judgement as to what it allows employees to adorn their uniforms with if you want, but that has nothing to do with “free speech,” (which to most people connotes legal issues not relevant here).
@GUtlessWonder – She’s also wearing a BLM pin, is that a “national flag”? Try to be consistent – or is that “whiteness”.
Airlines have appearance standards and “company approved pins” – usually a union pin, a company given pin, or a company sponsored club pin. If this pin wasn’t company approved, the FA violated the policy they agreed to at hiring. While not a fireable offense, a history of repeated violations is cause for termination. It’s hard to fire someone who calls out sick. It’s a lot easier when they repeatedly disobey policy standards and it’s documented.
C_M needs help with reading straight. My comment was about the national flag pins, not about other pins that have been allowed by this airline and some other US airlines. Now he can go back to his right-wing “come to Jesus” (or his Lord T-rump)” worship session.
Total, Yitzhak Shamir wasn’t assassinated by an extremist anti-Palestinian Israeli. It was left-of-center Yitzhak Rabin as PM who got assassinated and whose assassination was cheered on by extremist anti-Palestinian Israelis.
Yitzhak Shamir, on the right-wing side, was the guy who tried to make common cause with the Nazis and Mussolini while he was a key player in the Lehi/Stern Gang terrorist group before Israel was established as a country.
Brand recognition…plain and simple. As a representative of the employer, the employee gives the impression that the employer condones whatever the cause. Like it or not, the flight attendant expresses the brand and intent of the employer by wearing the uniform. Whether the employer sanctions the flags or other personal decorations worn by its employees is up to the employer. I recall a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines removed all of the identifying labels on her uniform. She then made a very provocative pose aboard an empty aircraft. Besides making the pose on the company aircraft, she failed to note that the her uniform and the interior of the aircraft was distinctly a Delta brand. She was terminated and rightly so.
Exactly what did the flight attendant tell the Captain? And why didn’t the captain look into it before accusing and ordering the passenger off the plane. Seems that a quiet minute of conversation would convince the captain this is not a situation that called for such drastic measures. I’m basing this on what this report categorized as a flight attendants jumping the gun.
Peter,
I didn’t say there is a free speech protection applicable on the job for the employees of the airline. But the airlines allowing national flag pins should be allowing all national flag pins under a uniform standard so as not to discriminate on the basis of national identity affiliation and land themselves in trouble that way.
The First Amendment does not extend protection for free speech into the workplace. It protects free speech from government intervention. This interpretation and concept have been upheld by the courts. Many companies have policies stating an employee cannot distribute material, wear clothing, display items, or speak in ways advocating for or against social and political issues. The exception being a cause endorsed by the company such as United Way, Cancer Awareness, and so forth. I do not understand why airlines allow flight attendants to wear pins, place stickers on their travel bags and taking other actions advocating for one side of an issue knowing full well it causes discomfort and conflict with those customers who disagree. The workplace is not the location to create debate. As representatives of the company, employees are not entitled to take stances which some customers will find offensive. It does not matter which side of an issue is taken by the employee; it does not belong in the workplace. If the airlines would take the same step many other companies have taken with zero tolerance it would solve a lot of problems before they start.
If I see an Israeli flag pin on an airline’s customer-facing employee, I would assume it means at least one of three things: they speak Hebrew; they are Israeli; they support Israeli national aspirations in some way or another. In the case of a Palestinian flag pin, I would assume it’s sort of the same but that it’s at least one of three things: they speak Arabic (of the Palestinian dialect); they are Palestinian; or they support Palestinian national aspirations in some way or another.
About the airline banning the passenger who allegedly fussed over the airline employee’s national flag pin, my view on that is I am against common carriers’ ability to ban free people in the absence of there being a criminal conviction of relevance.
[removed – gl]
jns, national flags are always political. If an airline allows national flag pins for several nations or even that of their own nation, then they ought to have consistent rules about when and why other national flag pins are allowed or are not allowed.
@Gary says ‘I wouldn’t crack down on campus protests except to the extent that they interfere with the function of the university, preventing classes from being held etc’. Well what would be the point of that? The only way you can change behaviour is to ensure that continuation of that behaviour will cost you. The students are demanding that their universities divest from arms manufacturers that promote American-sponsored wars and, especially, divest from their holdings in Israeli companies in light of the Gaza atrocities committed by the IDF. Do you think these Zionist-controlled universities will do this if the students are meek and mild? Business may go on as usual for you but think of the people of Gaza bombed daily with American ordnance. Why are Palestinian children less worthy than yours to their right to life.
May AndyS’ unkind and angry heart be healed rather than meet karma and get the bodily outcome he wishes on others.
Unfortunately for her/him/it and their hatred of anti-racists, the only family history of cancer of any potential relevance to my health is one rather fast and painless cancer death of an ancestor who was closer to 100 years of age than 95 years of age.
I won’t kick the can anytime soon, AndyS; so go cry yourself to sleep and hope you wake up a little more at peace with yourself and the wonderfully diverse country and world.
@AndyS
Please get help.
@Indopithecus – student demands to ‘divest’ are silly, since they seem to center around index funds (and oddly they aren’t protesting their parents with index funds, nor are participating faculty protesting their own retirement accounts).
You give up the plot with silly statements like “Zionist-controlled universities”
Banned from JetBlue?
JetBlue Is becoming the Spirit of the moderately priced air carriers. Hopefully, bankruptcy will come their way soon.
What I do find interesting about some of this divestment stuff is that some want divestment from Boeing. [Boeing is a military contractor/supplier too.] And yet I have to assume many of these protesters calling for divestment against war suppliers are not going to stop flying on Boeing planes.
You mean that Jet Blue does not have a rule barring flight attendants from wearing garb or espousing views that will obviously offend some passengers???
But the BLM and the Antisemitic pins are normally worn together.
Oh wait, it is the Passenger’s fault????????
I flew Monday night from LAX to BUF on JetBlue. The flight left more or less on time and landed about 20 minutes before the listed gate arrival time. We got near the gate and were delayed due to not having a crew at the gate before 5am. We still pulled up to the gate 5 minutes early. The cabin crew was attentive, efficient and were smiling. I personally have nothing but good things to say about JetBlue. If they do go through bankruptcy, may the big four USA airlines go through it again first.
The passenger was full of it. This is not worth having an article on. Get a grip folks.
I am offended every time Trump hats are worn on a flight. I however just ignore the item and get on with life.
Good! Palestinians are humans too. Hamas killed 2K Jews. Hamas must be punished. Israel & Netanyahu & IDF have killed 37,000 (and counting) innocent Palestinians. Therefore, Israel, Netanyahu & IDF must be punished.
WoW look at the pin lineup on this worthless individual!
I do kind of appreciate these idiots who wear these things though as it gives me an instant indication of the loser that I’m dealing with and of course influences whatever courtesies that I would have extended toward them.
When I first started flying in the late 60’s, we were taught we were never to discuss politics with passengers, along with salaries and sexual issues. It was good advice back then and might be a good idea to think about going back to it.
I remember hearing the Pres of AA was ordering BLM pins for crew members. Why? to cause problems on the a/c? People are not happy campers these days and can go off on anything. Why subject any crew members or passengers to any of this? There is no reason for a crew member to be wearing any pin/s on the uniform or smock other than wings and name tag. It is like the airline is pushing potential negative interaction between passengers and crew.
Crew members today have their own opinions and they should be kept to themselves and not shared with passengers, even if asked. Any pin that has a political connotation to the organization they represent should not be worn by crew members while on duty and in uniform.
There are two issues here.
1. Palestine, two-state “solution”, Israeli war started by Hamas kidnap and killing or not.
2. Airline FA wearing a solidarity pin expressing her viewpoint.
This being VFTW I’ll address the second one only.
The FA is at work, wearing a uniform. If you’re unfamiliar, the term means “we all dress alike and we all act alike because we act on behalf of the airline not ourselves.”
The military uses uniforms for this reason. There’s no carve-out for “Oh but I really love terrorists so I’ll put on their flat.” The Police use uniforms. There’s no carve-out for “Yeah law and order is quaint but I really thinkg George Floyd doth protest too much about his lack of breathing.”
This JetBlue FA violated her company’s policy to STICK IT IN THE MAN’S FACE that SHE GETS TO TELL HIM HER POLITICAL VIEWPOINT and if he DARES TO SAY A WORD she’ll deboard him and cancel his return ticket.
Do you think it’s right?
I don’t think any on-duty JetBlue employee gets to throw their nuts in my face and dare me to disagree under penalty of being removed.
The right to freedom of speech ends when you USE YOUR POSITION TO FORCE that speech on others.
Normally a big fan of FAs… but this one wasn’t acting as an FA. She was a political spokesperson. As others have said, hope she works out well at McDonalds.
“The right to freedom of speech ends when you USE YOUR POSITION TO FORCE that speech on others.”?
Where do people come up with such weird concepts about what the right to freedom of speech is and is not?
Well, this situation is a case of whether or not an airline allows its employees to wear national flag pins and if and how much an airlines’ passengers are entitled to make drama over the national flag pin of an airline employee on airline property.
I’ve seen Spanish flag pins worn by some US airline FAs. Perhaps the Spanish flag “offends” some Moroccans because of Ceuta and Melilla or a bunch of indigenous Americans because of Spain’s colonial history. Should the Spanish national flag pin be disallowed because some passengers may want to make drama about it on a plane? Should the drama-making passenger on the plane be removed from the flight? Inquiring minds want to know what you think and why about such questions and see how consistent you are with standards (or desires for a standard). Or will this also be a case like it is with Florida and Texas where the governors and their supporters whined about “cancel culture” but have since gotten into the business of wanting to cancel opinions and related speech and expression with which they disagree?
And if the issue wasn’t a national flag pin but about religious jewelry or attire worn by an airline employee, would you take a position consistent with the one taken about national flag pins worn by airline employees?
Blm and pali flag pins.
Says everything I need to know about this baboon.
AndyS,
Did you have the faculties of a primitive primate “white supremacist” before or after attending to your first gathering of such losers? I hear those meetings are a place for insecure, hateful people with an inferiority complex and inferior mental faculties. Can’t say you’re an example to the contrary, but you’re welcome to work on your issues and to try to become a better person and show the world and the SPLC that there is hope for evolution.
I am surprised the pin bothered this customer so much. The yarmulke is worn by jews on the plane, a white cap is worn by Muslims in the plane, and does not bother anyone. I think this issue has more to do with the customer than with the flight attendant. .
Sorry, @GUW I’m really not understanding the whole argument about “airlines allow national flag pins.” I’m actually not aware of airlines that allow national flag pins as part of their uniform standards. Airlines have swapped out national flag pins for language bars when the context is, “I speak the language of xxx country.” If you’ve seen Spanish flag pins, it was either a while ago under different standards, or employees that should be wearing language bars, but are breaking the rules.
If y’all don’t like it, you can always fly private.
Language pins can include national flags. And it makes more sense to allow employees to have a flag pin to indicate a language capability on a language pin than to not have a national flag on such pins too.
@Tim Or just not fly Jet Blue. Seems like they won’t be around for much longer anyway.
Why have all the BLM folks moved on to Palestine, you hear lots of anti-western language especially using the “colonial” term. It’s all basically communist propaganda spread through TikTok in my opinion. Hopefully that gets shut down soon.