A Jewish passenger was removed from a flight, that based on video appears to be on JetBlue. Although it’s identified on social media as American Airlines. There are very few American Airlines narrowbody aircraft with seat back video screens, and that system looks like JetBlue’s rather than American’s.
According to a social media account the passenger’s removal was prompted by their “comments regarding Gaza.”
An American airline kicked an Israeli passenger off the plane due to inappropriate comments regarding Gaza. pic.twitter.com/kylwQbsboW
— SilencedSirs◼️ (@SilentlySirs) January 6, 2025
Another Jewish passenger just had officers called on him after speaking up about a flight attendant’s Palestine flag pin that violated company standards.
And JetBlue tightened their flight attendant dress code after calling cops on an elite passenger who spoke up about a flight attendant’s Palestine flag pin. They also faced controversy over their seatback entertainment’s moving map removing the state of Israel.
While this video doesn’t show what actually happened before the Jewish passenger was removed, and so it’s not possible to pass judgment on the incident (especially since the person passing it along appears to misidentify the airline!), something all airlines need to consider is asymmetric speech: that airline employees exercise power over passengers – power over whether they’ll board and fly, or whether they’ll be considered “disruptive” for expressing their own contrary opinions. And bringing politics into the cabin is already enough of a problem with passengers, letting crew do it to passengers is even worse.
That’s why I’m a fan of the new American Airlines policy that restricts the ability of individual crew to remove passengers on their own judgment when neither safety nor security is at issue.
And it shows what happens when passengers from all backgrounds, and employees with their own views, are thrown together in small-d democratic fashion inside a metal tube. All of differences outside of air travel become magnified.
If you want to make political comments about anything on a plane, particularly to flight attendants, do it while getting off, not on. They want to remove you from the plane after you’ve arrived at your destination, oh dear, can I go to the front of the line? Better yet, step off the plane and yell back at them from the door.
Can’t tell anything from this super calm video….What, where, when, who. Who knows if this was even about “Gaza”. Kinda useless. Im assuming posted in order to trigger views & comments by the poster of that social media account.
JetBlue is amateur hour. The worst FAs in the business who too often act like uneducated bumpkins with chips on their shoulder.
How bout it, free speech absolutists? Where you at?! Or, for the greater good, we can stop with the politicization of passenger air travel. Maybe, we prioritize safety and comfort from point-A-to-point-B without the excessive ‘expression’ — This post pairs nicely with the earlier one on the flight attendant wearing a ‘watermelon’ pin. Like a fine wine; no, whine… and cheese. Cheers everyone!
The post doesn’t say “American Airlines”, it says “An American airline”. JetBlue is an American airline company.
The Twitter account being relied upon for that video is full of all sorts of misinformation. It also happens to be a very anti-Israeli account.
So I am curious if we will get reliable eyewitness accounts from people on whichever flight is shown in the video.
Simple – don’t voice your opinion on an airline or react to something someone else is wearing. Is that REALLY so hard? If you create a disturbance, even if reacting to something g that offends you, then you deserve to be thrown off.
Gary – I know you are Jewish but enough with these stories of Jews being allegedly mistreated. They are right there now with dogs on the plane and people showing their feet as pet peeves of yours and it is getting REALLY old!
Freely express yourself as you wish, however can all passengers and crew refrain while in the metal tube? Comments, pins, hats and political shirts can wait until safely deboarded.
We have absolutely no information to go on this video. The only thing we have here is an anti-Israel account sharing it in order to give an impression that there are prevalent pro-palestinian attitudes and that it’s okay to throw off someone who is Pro Israel and that it’s done all over.
We have no idea if that’s the case here, most likely there was some other infraction that an FA didn’t like and this has nothing to do with Gaza.
I wonder how often someone says something rude on an airplane. With no evidence of the passenger being rude this becomes a he said, she said. Dis someone say jackxxx or another slur? Will a ban on flying follow?
More information is needed in order to make any sense of this.
That said, employers should generally be able to require that employees while on the job or in uniform do or do not say certain things and/or wear certain things. And businesses should generally be able to tell customers they cannot do certain things or say certain things and/or wear certain things.
That said, if an employer’s action involve targeting groups for group punishment (e.g., throwing all the Jews off of a flight (Lufthansa) because a few were being disruptive — then there should be hell to pay.
We don’t know what happened, so I have no comment on his speech. However, as one who supports free speech with virtually no restrictions (e.g., slander, treason), I also recognize that you voluntarily give up that right in exchanges. I accept there are things I cannot say at work as part of my employment contract. I can be kicked off a plane for exercising free speech; it is part of my agreement to be transported. People get this wrong a lot, just like reporters, whose newspapers won’t publish their article, imagining it violates freedom of press.