JetBlue called the cops on a passenger who spoke up about a flight attendant who wore a Palestine flag pin on her uniform, and made sure it was visible even while wearing an apron during service and even while her Black Lives Matter pin was covered.
The ten-year elite passenger’s return trip was also cancelled after the crew reported that he made threatening comments, a notion that was disputed by several other passengers on the aircraft.
- 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 that “from the river to the sea” Jews will be cleansed, and the land will belong to Palestinians.
- At a minimum the frequency with which this message is attached to the symbol means it’s likely to be understood this way.
The problem here is that the crewmember engaged in personal, political speech on board an aircraft where others were forced to ‘listen’ and when a passenger (reportedly politely) expressed concerns – their own speech – they were punished and met by law enforcement. In other words, the issue is asymmetric speech.
Bringing crewmember politics onto the aircraft, and forcing passengers to remain silent in response under threat of both airline and legal sanction. JetBlue recognized the issue and has updated its uniform policy.
- Previously flight attendants were permitted one personally-selected pin on their uniform
- Going forward they’ll be limited to wearing airline-approved pins
Here is JetBlue’s full statement:
As New York’s Hometown Airline, we are proud of our long history welcoming customers of different backgrounds and faiths from around the world. JetBlue does not tolerate discriminatory conduct, and we are committed to providing a respectful and welcoming environment for all our customers and crewmembers. We are taking this matter very seriously and conducting a full investigation into our crewmembers’ actions. We will take appropriate action once our investigation is complete as a result of non-compliance with any JetBlue policies.
At JetBlue, our #1 value is safety, and it guides every decision JetBlue makes. Our crewmembers should be focused on the safety of our flights and delivering a great customer experience. We have changed our uniform policy to make clear that on board the aircraft is not the right place for crewmembers to advocate positions on certain issues or political topics. Going forward crewmembers will only be permitted to wear pins approved or issued by JetBlue.
We had previously identified that our pin policy, which had dated back many years and allowed crewmembers to wear one unoffensive personal pin of their choice, needed to be updated to reflect the current environment. In light of this incident, we urgently expedited this change.
We have reached out to listen to Mr. Faust and offer our apologies for the breakdown in our policies during his flight. We hope with these actions we can welcome him back onto a JetBlue flight in the future.
The airline pledges ‘appropriate action’ once they complete their investigation into the crewmember who called the cops on a passenger for objecting to their political message inflight; has their return flight cancelled; and likely lied about the interaction.
jetBlue is a joke!
For me the way they kicked him off the flight and falsely accused him probably needs some more compensation or perhaps a lawsuit.
@Running … +1 . Also , wearing a gaza pin is a sick joke .
Good! No person in a customer service role should ever wear anything that could potentially offend others. An employees right to show their opinion or allegiance stops at work. They are a representative of the company and nothing should be done to alienate any customers. If you don’t like it quit.
Now I hope Jet Blue fires the FA that started this and also rewards the passenger kicked off with a full refund of the fare paid, a large amount of miles and maybe future locked in status or a free flight certificate. Whatever they do will be cheaper than defending against his lawsuit.
The flight attendant may have not known the previous policy of one unoffensive pin so retraining is needed and possibly time off. The supervisor is being paid extra to know company policy so the supervisor should be fired for going against company policy.
Extremely well said, Gary !!! As for JetBlue, the last paragraph in their statement is unclear: “We have reached out to listen to Mr. Faust and offer our apologies for the breakdown in our policies during his flight. We hope with these actions we can welcome him back onto a JetBlue flight in the future”. What actions, simply apologizing for their heinous actions, which were incredibly wrong and caused him great harm ? Either there was some serious compensation going on in the background, or Mr. Faust ought to sue them into oblivion.
Hopefully, they will terminate everyone involved in this incident. Of course the union will try to stop any action against the rogue employees.
F/As should not wear anything that represents political, brands, personal likes etc. That is not what they are there for. Safety and service only.
Only flag should be a company approved US flag. On politics they should be trained on how to extract themselves from non airline or safety discussions and not to express political opinions
“It is possible to wear a Palestinian flag and believe you’re advocating for two states.”
Indeed, the above is true. The following two sentences are, however, untrue:
“That isn’t usually what it means. One wears the pin to represent that “from the river to the sea” Jews will be cleansed, and the land will belong to Palestinians.”
With regard to the following quoted sentence
“At a minimum the frequency with which this message is attached to the symbol means it’s likely to be understood this way.”
doesn’t really say much as “the frequency” is not uniform and is only selective as to what the receiving audience wants it to be as part of self-confirming bias.
If you don’t like it fly private.
The Daily Mail is an outrage machine and their articles are both poorly written and tabloid-ey. Why is that click-bait article being repurposed here? Assigning the phrase “From the river to the sea” to someone who didn’t even appear to speak to the subject of the article is wild. The issue here is JetBlue’s reaction, not this employee and the calls to fire her are both unkind and knee-jerk. We can all support Israel without being awful, c’mon.
If wearing the Palestinian flag is advocating for the cleansing of Jews, then the Israeli flag must mean advocating for the cleansing of Palestinians.
Clearly both assertions are ridiculous, although only one has spent the past 100 years systematically cleansing the land of the other, so if picking among the two, it’s the Israeli flag that represents cleansing.
C’mon Gary. You’re seriously stating that no Palestinian can ever wear a pin of their flag because of what some fringe people say that it means.
I’m sure the same comment applies to every flag that any citizen of anywhere wears: someone, somewhere will say that it advocates for violence, sexism, racism or whatever.
The reality for most normal people is that it is simply a pin of a flag that is just being worn to show support or as a source of pride.
Should the FA be fired for wearing the pin? no, it was within company policy at that time. That matter has now been dealt with. Should the FA be fired for lying about the incident? That is a trickier question, disciplinary measures depends upon the investigation’s findings and her past employment history. As a retired supervisor, I never wanted to dismiss an employee without giving them an opportunity to correct themselves going forward. That wasn’t always possible, but it was my goal. As for the supervisor who called in the police, that person was relying upon the information they were given by the crew. That person should be counseled about how to better handle such situations going forward. One underlying thing I have seen in many of the cases is that only the crew’s observations are taken into account. The passenger is discounted and the surrounding passengers who witnessed the situation and also not taken into account. They should be interviewed before any final decisions are made. As to a resolution at this time, that is between the passenger and the airline, they need to make it right for obvious reasons.
@Christopher Raehl
“If wearing the Palestinian flag is advocating for the cleansing of Jews, then the Israeli flag must mean advocating for the cleansing of Palestinians.
Clearly both assertions are ridiculous, although only one has spent the past 100 years systematically cleansing the land of the other, so if picking among the two, it’s the Israeli flag that represents cleansing.”
ROFL!!!
While I’ll agree that the Israelis haven’t exactly been the best about treating the Arabs, anyone with a bit of knowledge of history knows that the Arabs have been attempting to wipe out the Israelis from the UN partition until now.
Israel has a right to protect itself and that may mean kicking out the fifth column.
Israel has been trying to make peace for so many years and Egypt and Jordan are proof of that.
The Arabs voted in Hamas about 15 years ago and the majority still support terror against Israel as a valid method of “freedom”.
Sorry buddy, but its the Arabs who have major issues, not Israel.
Two issues here: JetBlue’s policy regarding the wearing something on a company-mandated uniform (such as a pin), and it’s policy regulating under what circumstances an employee can contact the police.
The pin issue has been addressed by JetBlue itself and various comments here. What may be more important is the second: what conduct authorizes an employee to contact the police, and what steps can JetBlue take should that employee violate the procedures. If an employee steps outside the company guidelines based on, for example, personal animus, what are the consequences?
Do not the Palestinians also have a right to protect themselves? Only one group is illegally occupying the territory of the other – that’s Israel occupying Palestinian territory.
Israel isn’t defending itself. Israel is an aggressor. That’s not to say Hamas isn’t a heinous terrorist organization, but if we’re talking about defense, Palestinians should be removing settlers from their land. They can’t because the Israeli army supports the illegal settlements and the murder of Palestinian civilians.
I’m glad action was taken against the employee, though B6 should offer more than just an apology to the passenger.
Advocacy pins, buttons, stickers, verbal statements, etc. don’t belong in the workplace, period. Focus on the job and do your personal advocacy on your own time.
@Christopher Raehl,
Might be time to read up on some legitimate history as opposed to clinging to disinformation from the internet.
Hey points blogger, you think yourself so much of an expert on world affairs that you can confidently speak on what wearing a Palestinian pin means?
Stick to silly points and miles…just because you have travelled the world doesn’t mean you have a clue about anything real happening in it. All you know is fancy hotel rooms and turning left on planes. And your bias clearly shows in this conflict
@Raehl
I guess Al Qeada and Bin Laden had a right to defend themselves too huh?
For a premium travel experience, choose Delta.
Wow I have to hope you are just writing pure ignorance with the pin comment in there and not injecting your own politics into your workplace huh?
What an asinine, out of touch assertion.
The downhill slide of this blog is about to warrant its removal from my Google news feed.
As a former Flight Attendant, we all wore different pins on our uniforms and on our in flight aprons. Just because a passenger didn’t like it is no reason to cause an uproar! Just another reason why more people have had enough of Israel’s bullying and bulls**t! We all have a right to our opinions! Bravo to the flight attendant!
@Christopher Raehl:
I suggest some real history of the situation, not the propaganda that is repeated again and again by the world press because to do otherwise would deny them the ability to report from the area.
Hamas is the one who attacked. And with a deliberate massacre and kidnapping–Nuremberg level stuff. And they’re not backing down even though they’re fighting someone with far more firepower. The latest “peace” offer is not–they would still keep some of the hostages. That’s unacceptable to Israel and they know it, it’s yet another sham to fool western ears.
With regard to CHRISSY’s words above, Bin Laden and his core Al-Qaeda gang weren’t even living and attacking from the countries of their birth and ancestors when we took them out. They were literally occupiers of foreign lands behaving like racist colonial superiors over the indigenous population peoples whose lands they had settled. They did it in Sudan and they did it in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
….regarding individualization of a fashion designer’s contracted corporate uniform, the real question is, What Would Stan Herman do?
Stan Herman Dishes About Designers, New Book
At 95, the New York-based designer is still working for QVC and designing uniforms for FedEx, JetBlue and others.
@GUW
Thanks for answering the I posed to Riehl with a definitive YES!
How’s tent-life been the past few weeks?
Idiot.
CHRISSY, I wouldn’t know as I have been busy checking out additional homes in the $1.5M-4M range in a few countries but none of them are tents.
If you mean how are the satellite photos of tent cities in Gaza, I have suggested to the ICC that they keep them in mind while considering what additional war crimes the Netanyahu regime is going to be responsible for in Gaza.
I’m with @GUWonder
“That isn’t usually what it means. One wears the pin to represent that “from the river to the sea” Jews will be cleansed, and the land will belong to Palestinians.”
Maybe this was true before last October (I frankly don’t know), but the IDF’s actions since then have made absolutely sure that isn’t what it means to most people now.
Good, no politics should be allowed on public transportation.
I read about this when it occurred. The way it was handled by everyone involved , except for the passenger himself, was inexcusable.
The pin was meant to alienate and intimidate. To state the obvious, esp any Jewish passengers
The flight attendant should not only be subject to a “new policy” but terminated as there was so many clear violations
, I hope this gentleman gets the utmost apology and gets upgraded on every flight he takes! If he continues to fly with you
A public statement is in order on your social media.
Are national flag pins allowed on public transportation? They are and should be, at least for passengers.
By the way, public transportation is all about politics. That is why public transportation is what it is.
@Christopher Raehl – you seem to ignore how Israel came to occupy the territory that it does – it was invaded, the invasion didn’t work, and Israel expanded its territory for its security … security concerns that had literally just been proven real by the invasion. The U.S. has kept territory gained in war as well by the way. The U.S. supported a coup in Hawaii. It acquired Puerto Rico and Guam in the Spanish-American war. Should we give back California to Mexico?
Actually, Gary, Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is the result of the Six-Day War, wherein Israel fired first in a series of preemptive strikes. Hamas is pure evil and a product of occupation. Israeli citizens do NOT deserve attacks, harm, or prejudice. But, most Palestinian people just want to be free, protect their kids, and live their lives. Most are as terrified of Hamas as the rest of the world.
I find it vile that one can rant about the dehumanization that is antisemitism but then dehumanize an entire culture because of Hamas. Nothing radicalizes someone faster than oppression.
To say that the Israeli government is justified to do whatever it wants, however it wants to whomever it wants because any voice saying. “Well that’s rotten to do” is somehow antisemitism is just plain juvenile.
To say that anyone wearing a pin secretly (or overly) wants to murder all Jews is equally as juvenile and down right stupid.
The rules of international law and order today are not what they were before the Holocaust and World War 2. The rules of international law and order today are a direct product of the harms of the biggest two wars of the 20th century and the Holocaust and were worked on to be the guardrails meant to protect all peoples from the worst barbarianisms of that era. And so this “whataboutism” about US Government behavior before the legal creation of the state of Israel has limited legal and even moral relevance to what Hamas and Israel have been doing in and since the fall of 2023. Or should we buy Israel’s desire for more “living room” “security” in the occupied Palestinian Territories under the same sham auspices as Russia’s desire to have more “living room” “security” with occupying Ukraine? No surprise that Putin and Netanyahu were birds of a feather even well after Russia did it’s “special military operation” for its supposed “security” against ____.
“That isn’t usually what it means. One wears the pin to represent that “from the river to the sea” Jews will be cleansed, and the land will belong to Palestinians”
Wow, what a bunch of bullshit. Imagine being so full of yourself that you believe someone else’s flag is a call to genocide Jews. I guess that’s just how Jews think.
@Gary et al: I like how everyone assumes I’m getting my “history” from modern media. I assure you, I’m getting my history from history. I’m just not approaching it from the assumption that Israel good not Israel bad.
I am not ignoring how Israel came to occupy (some) of the territory it does. It occupies a lot of the territory it does because Britain abandoned their mandate (including after some Jewish terrorism) and (after more terrorism) many Palestinians were displaced from that territory. Israel came to occupy MORE territory during future conflict. Israel has since proceeded to illegally displace civilians living in that territory, while promulgating an apartheid policy against the occupied population. This is tremendously immoral and ALSO illegal.
Your analogy to territory gained by the US in conflict is so superficially ridiculous I can’t fathom how you could even make it: Virtually every territory occupied by the US is PART OF THE US. Your analogy would work if Palestinians were made Israeli citizens and treated the same as all other Israeli citizens. They are obviously not. It would also work if the US didn’t allow anyone except white people who moved to California to vote while looking the other way if white people murdered brown people living there if the white people wanted their land and prohibiting non-white people from leaving California.
It is Not The Same Thing At All.
You can argue that Israel “needs” these territories for their security. They don’t, but even accepting that they do, taking land from the occupied population and encouraging settlement/displacement by their own citizens absolutely does not provide ANY security benefit to Israel. In fact it’s to their security determent, as they have to commit military resources to protecting the illegal settlements as opposed to, say, not letting a buncha people on motorcycles overrun the tiny border with Gaza and conduct hours of uncontested terrorism.
Israel doesn’t need to be in Gaza at all. They can defend their 37-mile border with Gaza just fine without obliterating tens of thousands of civilians whose “crime” is being born in a place they aren’t allowed to leave under a government they never voted for and can’t change.
Yes, the United States (and many other countries) have a horrific history of conquest/colonialism/expansion. But at least we’re trying to do better. Israel is actively, presently, doing worse.
At the end of the day, whenever Israel has a choice between security and territory, they choose territory.
First, the airline should not allow any pins period. Self expression is not part of the travel mission nor is there any need for it.
Second, the employee should be terminated forthwith and any who knowingly participated should be disciplined. It is serious malfeasance to lie and have a paying customer met by police and then cancel his flights. If there is no discipline then it sends the message that it’s ok to do.
Third, WTH is wrong with employees these days at Google, Jetblue etc.? Your job is your job, you do it without expressing your opinions on sensitive political topics no matter how strongly you feel. If you can’t adhere to this basic principle then maybe find another line of work as an independent contractor.’
Finally to all the antisemites Hamas-niks posing as antiZionists you can f- off. You are spinning your wheels – nobody here believes your lies. Try HuffPo
All this caused by one self-absorbed pax who couldn’t resist the opportunity to cause trouble. When will we learn who should be ‘punished’ for this nonsense? Hint: it ain’t the crew.
Finally Jet Blue gets it rjght…..
Succinctly, I’m absolutely not saying Palestinians good/Jews bad. I’m saying Hamas bad, Israeli government bad, Palestinians and Israelis caught in a cycle of violence perpetuated by the small segment of their own citizens in power.
Hamas commits a terrorist atrocity, Israel’s government (currently driven by right-wing Zionists) tells their citizens they must respond by committing atrocity. Hamas tells their citizens they must respond to this atrocity by committing atrocity. Repeat.
A very small segment of Israelis are on a holy mission to push Arabs out of the ‘holy land’, and a very small segment of Arabs are on a holy mission to push Jews out of the ‘holy land’.
The vast, vast majority of people from the river to the sea just want to go to work, raise their kids, enjoy their lives. They are all the victims. The violence will continue as long as people label one group’s zealots as righteous and the other group’s as terrorists.
Hamas crossing the border on October 7? Terrorists.
Jewish settlers killing Palestinian farmers? Terrorists.
Suicide bombers bombing restaurants and busses? Terrorists.
Fighter pilots bombing apartment buildings? Terrorists. (Why is delivering a bomb not terrorism just because you fly it on a plane first?)
But the people in power benefit from the cycle of violence. What use could Hamas or Netanyahu claim if there were peace?
@Boraxo: You know if you go to Disney or may other places that try to promote the international character of their business, employees wearing the flags of their home country is not only common but encouraged?
The FA was wearing the flag of her home country. This should be non-offensive, and certainly not cause for any discipline especially within the current corporate policy.
Removing the passenger appears to be over the top, but between the FA and the PAX, the person fundamentally in the wrong was the passenger trying to make an issue of a national flag pin.
And to think – if the Hamas had not of attacked Israel, none of what has transpired since then would have happened.
It never ceases to amaze me how dumb some companies are. Want to express yourself? Great! Do it on your own time. But while you’re at work, leave ALL pins at home. There. Problem solved!
The involved FA is Palestinian? While there are Afro-Arab Palestinians, I don’t think that should be a requirement to wear a BLM pin or a Palestinian national flag pin.
Under updated airline policy for pins worn by employees on the job, it seems like the only pins with national flags allowed will be for flags of places to which JetBlue flies. So that means no more Israeli and Palestinian flag pins while on the job for the airline.
@Reahl
She/It/Them/Whatever isn’t Palestinian. She’s black. She’s even wearing her terrorist BLM pin too. Just another GenZ/ABW/Opperssed idiot troubkemaker that manages to get hired by these companies.
I hope it costs Jetblue. Thats the risk you take by hiring these fools.
When it comes to CHRISSY’s dream of a “white Christian nationalist” America as the KKK wants it, it’s a dream destined to the dustbin of history.
Oh look, a Zionist was offended.
@Christopher Raehl
“Do not the Palestinians also have a right to protect themselves? Only one group is illegally occupying the territory of the other – that’s Israel occupying Palestinian territory.”
Well no. Actually Israel isn’t “occupying,” much less “illegally occupying,” these lands as the West Bank was Jordan and Gaza was Egypt, before Israel ejected each in a war of self-defense and both Jordan and Egypt have renounced their claims to these territories. These are “conquered territories,” rather like the French conquered (and then annexed) Alsace and Loraine and the US conquered California, but not “occupied,” under actual principles of International Law – no matter what anybody might say as a matter of politics.
“If wearing the Palestinian flag is advocating for the cleansing of Jews, then the Israeli flag must mean advocating for the cleansing of Palestinians.”
Again, no. 20% of Israel’s population are Arabs who have equal rights to Jews and serve in all positions of Israeli government. On the other hand neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority allow Jews to live in the territories that they control, Jews have no civil or legal rights in those places, and cannot purchase, own, or even rent property in them. So Israel doesn’t mean no Arabs, but Palestine certainly does mean no Jews. Somewhat more than half of Israeli Jews are descended from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, and while it is a fantasy that Europe would every take European Jews back, it is beyond fantasy to think that the majority descended from places like Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Libya, etc. would have anyplace to go, and “Palestine From River to the Sea” therefore clearly contemplates that the 7 million Jews in Israel be subject to Nazi style extermination.