My gosh, this seems like an unnecessary conflict, one that especially shouldn’t be playing out on an airplane. What’s interesting here is that passengers very much perceived this to be intentional, while the airline is now claiming this was an honest mistake, which seems highly suspect to me.
In this post:
Ryanair flight attendant makes Palestine announcements
To start, let’s discuss the claims made by passengers about what happened on the June 10 Ryanair flight from Bologna (BLQ) to Tel Aviv (TLV). According to reports, passengers on this flight to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport were surprised when a flight attendant repeatedly announced the destination of the flight as being Palestine, with no mention of Israel. The flight attendant reportedly announced the destination as Palestine multiple times, in both English and Italian.
Passengers tried to get the flight attendant to correct herself or apologize, but she refused. Instead, the flight attendant accused the passengers of creating a disturbance that endangered the safety of the flight.
Passengers also claim that the flight attendant was not wearing a name tag, making it hard to file a complaint after the fact. As a result, at least one passenger tried to take a picture of the flight attendant. That passenger was then told that they’d be arrested upon landing if they got up to take a picture of the flight attendant.
As you’d expect, many people are calling for a boycott of the airline…
Ryanair’s suspicious apology & defense
Ryanair was initially silent about this situation, but has now released a statement. Here’s what the airline claims:
“A junior crew member made a routine descent PA mistakenly saying ‘Palestine’ instead of ‘Tel Aviv.’ This was an innocent mistake with no intent and was immediately corrected and apologised for by the senior crew member on board.”
So yeah, Ryanair seems to be claiming this was an honest mistake on the part of a junior crew member, and that there was an immediate apology and correction from a senior crew member.
I wasn’t there myself, so I can’t say anything for sure. However, I am highly skeptical of Ryanair’s explanation:
- It sounds to me like Ryanair may have just spoken to the crew to get their side of the story, and not to passengers?
- Referring to Tel Aviv as Palestine is quite a strange “honest” mistake for a crew member to make
- Ryanair’s version of events isn’t corroborated by several passengers, who claimed that there were multiple announcements and that there was no apology
- This wouldn’t be the first time that Ryanair’s press statements don’t quite prove to be accurate
Ryanair is obviously trying to completely sweep this under the rug and seems to have concluded its investigation, which sure makes you wonder…
If true, this is completely ridiculous
I don’t want to make this an Israel vs. Palestine debate, because this is the internet, and that quickly goes downhill. Assuming what passengers claim is true, then it’s absurd for a flight attendant to intentionally aggravate passengers this way, and push her beliefs on them.
The destination for this flight was Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport. If she has an issue with accepting that Tel Aviv is in Israel (or even if she doesn’t), then you can just announce the destination as Tel Aviv. Because, you know, that’s the destination. When you board a flight from Tokyo to New York, the crew doesn’t announce “welcome aboard this flight to the United States.”
But according to passengers, it sounds like the intent here was to make a political point based on her own beliefs. And then when she was called out over it, she doubled down, and threatened passengers. Now, photographing crew members does probably violate the carrier’s policy, but I can also understand why passengers would be so upset, and would want to capture this.
You would hope that flight attendants would have better judgment and wouldn’t be the ones looking to instigate an onboard disturbance, but that appears to be what happened here.
Ryanair’s statement on this incident doesn’t necessarily make the situation any better. The airline isn’t saying that it’s conducting an in-depth investigation into what happened, but rather seems to have made up its mind, in a way that minimizes the fault that lies with the airline.
Bottom line
Passengers on a recent Ryanair flight to Tel Aviv report that a flight attendant repeatedly referred to the destination as Palestine. This made many passengers angry, and they demanded a correction or apology, which the flight attendant reportedly refused to do. There’s enough conflict on airplanes nowadays, and the last thing we need is a flight attendant trying to say something that will upset many passengers.
In response to this, Ryanair claims that this was an honest mistake from a junior crew member, and that it was immediately corrected by a senior crew member. Go figure, that’s not actually supported by any of the passengers who spoke out.
What do you make of this Ryanair situation, and Ryanair’s explanation?
If I bought a plane ticket to a specific destination and a crew member announced that we were landing at a different destination, I would assume the plane was hijacked. Any disturbance that resulted from the announcement would be the fault of the flight attendant.
So, she told the truth and is getting punished for it? Ryan air could handle this better and say "Yes, Tel Aviv is in Palestine." because it is.
Oh my, you poor thing...
Jerusalem is the capital of Palestina.
There's been ZERO ethnic cleansing of Phonystinians. IT's their Arab leaders who've refused the generous offer of their own country, one they did nothing to deserve, over a dozen times over the last century that's oppressed the phony Palestinians, not Israel.
They were right.
“A junior crew member on this flight from Bologna to Tel Aviv [10 June] made a routine descent PA mistakenly saying 'Palestine' instead of 'Tel Aviv,'" the airline told Newsweek. "This was an innocent mistake with no intent and was immediately corrected and apologized for by the senior crew member on board."
It is a statement of fact that the destination was Ben Gurion Airport, located in the State of Israel. There is no territorial dispute about it's location since the establishment of the State in 1948. A flight attendant inflaming political passions on a flight has no business flying. Ryanair has demonstrated extremely poor judgement. The flight attendant does not have the emotional stability to fly. As an Israeli citizen I would not fly Ryanair, as...
It is a statement of fact that the destination was Ben Gurion Airport, located in the State of Israel. There is no territorial dispute about it's location since the establishment of the State in 1948. A flight attendant inflaming political passions on a flight has no business flying. Ryanair has demonstrated extremely poor judgement. The flight attendant does not have the emotional stability to fly. As an Israeli citizen I would not fly Ryanair, as their response clearly indicates a tone deaf management to it's host airport.
To be fair, calling it Israel or Palestine is controversial, depending on whom you talk to. From the post, you are obviously in the pro-Israel group. There are people who are just as passionate on the pro-Palestine side.
This topic won't be decided, or even constructively debated on a travel forum, but there are two sides to each viewpoint and arguments for both. Your framing in such a black-and-white manner whitewashed a lot of history.
that's imbecilic. There's no such thing as Palestinians, it was made up in the 1960's. The Palestinian narrative is the biggest hoax in history.
free
You sound like Trump
What is Palestine? Is this a country? What are its borders? I wasn't able to find it on any map online...
What is Palestine?
The occupied land by Israel.
Why would you really want to rattle this can?
Also, isn't this kind of trash 'news' the exclusive province of Gary Lett down at VFTW?
For views and clicks of course. Just look at this comments section. Easy money.
I'm a big fan of your blog and look forward to many of your interesting and informative articles.
However, your bullet : "Referring to Tel Aviv as Palestine is quite a strange “honest” mistake for a crew member to make" is completely untrue.
It is fake news.
There has been no such thing as Palestine for 75 years.
It was not honest and it was not a mistake.
You even...
I'm a big fan of your blog and look forward to many of your interesting and informative articles.
However, your bullet : "Referring to Tel Aviv as Palestine is quite a strange “honest” mistake for a crew member to make" is completely untrue.
It is fake news.
There has been no such thing as Palestine for 75 years.
It was not honest and it was not a mistake.
You even point out that it's a BS apology trying to limit liability.
I hope you correct your article and further edit your article to condemn this in the strongest possible way.
Thank you.
The reality is that if you’re Jewish everything you know about Israel you were taught by your parents , schul, and teachers at Hebrew school. Those are pro Zionist views. I was sent to Israel for a year in high school and pressured into believing that the US turned their back on the Jews during the holocaust and you must move to Israel and make Aliyah. Some of my classmates did. Well that was my...
The reality is that if you’re Jewish everything you know about Israel you were taught by your parents , schul, and teachers at Hebrew school. Those are pro Zionist views. I was sent to Israel for a year in high school and pressured into believing that the US turned their back on the Jews during the holocaust and you must move to Israel and make Aliyah. Some of my classmates did. Well that was my upbringing at least. I was told that Arabs are bad and Palestinians are terrorists.
That changed during college when I majored in the Middle East at a highly ranked university at the time. Some professors were Jewish , some Israeli , some Turkish , some Palestinian , some Afghan, and so on. Then I learned what I was taught growing up was not the truth. That there was a whole other side to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Thank you for generalizing your narrow experience onto a decades-long conflict an an American born Jew who thinks that his experience trumps all else.
American-born anti-Zionist Jews are some of the most narcissistic / dense participants in this discussion.
hmm.... Ben rightly predicted how quickly this topic would go downhill, fast!
The reality to this story is that a flight attendant rattled passengers. Flight attendants are there for safety, and to de-escalate conflict.
This individual chose to spark conflict, period. Bury your feelings. This is not a post about the Israeli Palestinian conflict. This is about a flight attendant purposely choosing to upset passengers by making claims many would find ambiguous.
Well done! Humanity and the empathy for the dispossessed is a beautiful thing no matter what your background :)
Oh, ok, so in other words - you went to college and they let you in on "the truth". Some secret truth that was hidden from you all those years. Doesn't sound like a cult at all. LOL
And no, what people "know of israel" doesn't come from parents, schul only. It just comes from, you know, facts and history (i.e - there was a jewish state on this land - twice - in history, and there was never an arab nation state here even once). Very clear.
Israel was ratified as a country in 1948. Case closed. The Phonystinians refuse to live productively. That's a fact. Israel has been defended itself in five big wars, 6 smaller wars, two intifadas, and dozens of terror attacks. How many wars has Israel started? None. If you're on the side of the Phonystinians, you need to go back to kindergarten.
Nothing wrong with calling out the apartheid squatter nation for what it is. Sorry - uncomfortable, but its self-evident fact, not belief. But if you're going to do that, better tell several generations of Europeans to leave USA, descendants of British convicts to leave Australia, etc. USA is a nation founded on genocide and built on slavery. How easily people are offended by acknowledging history !
It must be fun to live inside your head LOL
Mr. "history" over here. But he never heard of the fact that a jewish nation (kingdom) existed - twice in history already - (called "Israel" and then "Judea") generations before any arab (and ofcourse romans, greeks, crusaders et al) ever invaded that land.
And of course much like the "british convicts" (LOL) these jews continued (daily!) prayer to rebuilding the nation in that land...
It must be fun to live inside your head LOL
Mr. "history" over here. But he never heard of the fact that a jewish nation (kingdom) existed - twice in history already - (called "Israel" and then "Judea") generations before any arab (and ofcourse romans, greeks, crusaders et al) ever invaded that land.
And of course much like the "british convicts" (LOL) these jews continued (daily!) prayer to rebuilding the nation in that land for the last 1900 years. Btw - prayers are said still today even though the land is once again within hand.
Oy Hank.
@Dude - they like to graft simplistic leftist narratives onto world affairs. It's the way of the "englightened" overeducated western leftist. Smug and dumb.
"leftist"... you lost.
Really? You're extending this incident to all that? The plane was not a classroom or debate stage, the rogue flight attendant represents Ryanair, the passengers were flying to Tel Aviv.
Jut have a few people encourage a Ryanair boycott. Knowing O'Leary as we all do, HE'll fire that PLO spokesperson faster than it takes to say "Ryanair", especially if the sales in Israel go down 2% during a week.
So let's jump in. What the FA said was the truth!!. The absolute truth, and I do not care what people on here think. I love how passengers demand she restates it. Haha. :-D Perhaps, perhaps it was a genuine mistake?.
Yes, nothing sounds more credible than someone shouting "THIS IS THE TRUTH! THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH"
How good it is to live in conviction of your silly beliefs, and not have to stick to any facts, history.
Your opinion means nothing to me. Take care.
Your (silly) opinions mean nothing as well of course. Do not take care, and may you be stuck on a 27 hour Spirit flight in a middle seat.
Legend. About time someone stood up against the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes by a bunch of European and North Americans.
@Peter - what's reprehensible is your complete distortion of Jewish demography and the realities of the conflict. Do Mizrahi, North African, Ethiopian and south Asian Jews in Israel not exist? Do they not deserve safety? You're a joke and a racist.
Oh please!
Ben: “I don’t want to make this an Israel vs. Palestine debate”
Peter: (Sloshes gasoline around and looks for a match)
@Peter - I support your comments 100%, and this will not change!
LOL
A simple walk through the streets of Israel will show anyone that's been there how "European and North American" that place is. What a joke.
But, more than anything this is an example of how "anti zionism" is rooted in anti-semitism : it's just filled with outright lies. Most jews - or about 50/50 - in Israel today are descendants of North African, Levant, Yemen, Persia (and others).
All of them by the...
LOL
A simple walk through the streets of Israel will show anyone that's been there how "European and North American" that place is. What a joke.
But, more than anything this is an example of how "anti zionism" is rooted in anti-semitism : it's just filled with outright lies. Most jews - or about 50/50 - in Israel today are descendants of North African, Levant, Yemen, Persia (and others).
All of them by the way - wherever their past generations lived - prayed for return to zion and jerusalem for about 1800 years before the start of "zionism".
Absolutely! #FromTheRiverToTheSea
there's no such thing as Palestinians. THey were invented in the 1960's by that intellect and charming man, Yasser Arafat (I'm obviously being sarcastic about this terrorist scumshit). If you live in the US, better give your home to a native American if you're anti-Israel.....because you're a hypocrite.
https://help.ryanair.com/hc/en-ie/requests/new
Not shocking at all, considering that Ireland is European most anti-Semitic country, together with Norway. Also, I think that hard-core Catholics in Ireland and Italy still blame Jews using blood libel. Finally, I will not be shocked if it will be discovered that the flight attendant had a bowl of scotch for breakfast, and that caused her to speak a certain way.
Ireland isn't anti-Semitic, just anti-Zionist. Not the same thing.
Thanks for the distinction without a difference Julia. Your ideologue cohort has trained you well with an arsenal of nonsensical rejoinders that your ilk spew all over the internet. Hamas / PIJ definitely love Jews.
Organized religion is a joke. I’m an antisemite, anti-Christian, and anti-Muslim. Stop clinging to fairly takes, biatch.
Did you read that in Mein Kampf? It’s pretty much the same thing, because 99% of people that support Zionism are Jewish. Hitler and Stalin also claimed it’s not the same thing, but a lot of us know how it ended up.
Did you read that in Mein Kampf? It’s pretty much the same thing, because 99% of people that support Zionism are Jewish. Hitler and Stalin also claimed it’s not the same thing, but a lot of us know how it ended up.
This is an incredibly racist smear against Irish people. Also equating criticism of Israel with discrimination of jews is itself antisemetic as per the examples of the IHRA.
The IRA was trained by the PLO, love.
Lol the usual callout of "anti-Semitic" get out of jail card to cover aggression of Israeli state. When people gonna realize calling out Israeli war crimes does not equate to hating Jews
That's Ryanair. I'll stay in a city an extra day, or take a connecting flight specifically to make sure I never have to degrade myself by boarding a Ryanair plane. I've been doing this for many many years.
All of " israel" is Palestine. "israel" is just an european/western military colony in the middle east cloaked in religious non sense.
Sorry, when did Palestine exist prior to 48?
On the money, on travel documents, on maps...
Meaning a descriptor of portions of the Ottoman and British Empires, got it.
Nope, as legitimate identifiers. Hope you get it now.
Oh, Julia - the ever lasting jew obsessed (sorry, "zionist" obsessed) commenter.
If you have any intellectual honesty whatsoever (you don't, I know) answer just one question (there are thousands of questions whose answers would stump your silly propoganda, but just one):
When & where before the 20th century (not 1948) was there any "palestinian" currency, any "palestinian" travel documents, any "palestinian" poetry, literature, art etc? even better - give one simply one place...
Oh, Julia - the ever lasting jew obsessed (sorry, "zionist" obsessed) commenter.
If you have any intellectual honesty whatsoever (you don't, I know) answer just one question (there are thousands of questions whose answers would stump your silly propoganda, but just one):
When & where before the 20th century (not 1948) was there any "palestinian" currency, any "palestinian" travel documents, any "palestinian" poetry, literature, art etc? even better - give one simply one place (book, news article, poem, song in any language from anywhere in the world - not just in arabic) that simply mentions the word "palestinian" before the 20th century?
There is none of course. Because there was no "palestinians" just like there were no "jordanians" (and you won't find any description of that word either).
These are names depicting a geo-location that's all, and "palestine" was simply a place where arabs, jews, druze, later on also even armenians and cerkesi people lived, but none of them was ever "palestinian". And there was no ethnic group of "palestinians" who saw a place named "palestine" as their homeland or nation. Just wasn't.
You either won't reply, or queue the "oh this is zionist talking points" nonsense LOL
This was really written more for anyone else reading this here, and wants to understand more about this issue, and not from some brain washed loone who believes in fairy tales.
@JR - She honestly probably doesn't even know. I mean, she actually thinks - like the brainwashed I talk / argue to / with sometimes that there was a "palestinian" entity with a "palestinian" government that had passports, currency etc rather than it was simply the British Mandate government between 1917-1948 that issues those "identifiers" (as how she calls it LOL)
I mean...what can you say anymore about such people. Lunatics.
Before 48 Palestine was occupied by the British Empire but Jewish underground movements were conducting terrorist operations.
Exactly.
everyone else in the world just ignores it if someone says the wrong destination. no surprise that it becomes a world breaking issue in this instance lol
How should anyone be sure this "flight attendant to intentionally aggravate passengers this way, and push her beliefs on them."
Consider the level of education these days, I give the benefit of doubt that this FA really had no idea.
Same could be said with Hertz + MSY Police regarding Puerto Rico is not USA. (bet ya forgot about this already, TikTok has corrupted the brain)
Is it political agenda or just (lack of)...
How should anyone be sure this "flight attendant to intentionally aggravate passengers this way, and push her beliefs on them."
Consider the level of education these days, I give the benefit of doubt that this FA really had no idea.
Same could be said with Hertz + MSY Police regarding Puerto Rico is not USA. (bet ya forgot about this already, TikTok has corrupted the brain)
Is it political agenda or just (lack of) education problems.
On the other hand, the power trip part of the FA. That's the real problem.
Sure in this case was some political disagreements, but in America same thing but from anything ranging from seat assignment, overbooked, being considered a threat, a child trafficker, playing with feathers, using the words FA doesn't want to hear, etc. or simply minding your own business. But that's not enough to stop a power trip.
Israel vs. Palestine.
Puerto Rico vs. USA.
Doesn't matter, when you trigger a power trip, you lose.
Stop giving people who can't tell the difference of Israel or Puerto Rico unlimited power and train law enforcements to side with them. Police always assumes the customer is disruptive not the employees.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
@JR
The Hertz employee and police at MSY would think the same, they knew exactly what they were doing.
Thank you for comparing a Hertz employee in New Orleans talking about a U.S. territory (with no history of armed conflict) to an FA on an Irish (NB: western Europe and notably Ireland are pervasively anti-Zionist) airline talking about a region with decades-long armed conflict.
You seem very sophisticated and knowledgeable about global geopolitical affairs.
@JR this is pretty typical of folks of certain stripes nowadays: look at this false equivalence over here! it proves what I want to believe!! Check out Eskimo's comments over the years in this space and you'll get what I mean...
On the contrary, USA is a divided country where everything must be politically correct and any slightest misunderstanding even without intent would trigger a race card, gender identity, freedom of ...everything.. , and all sort of discriminations.
An this country is also involved in your so called decades-long armed conflict or many other armed conflict, we supplied the weapons.
So yes I can guess when people are brainwashed and make hastily conclusions that would...
On the contrary, USA is a divided country where everything must be politically correct and any slightest misunderstanding even without intent would trigger a race card, gender identity, freedom of ...everything.. , and all sort of discriminations.
An this country is also involved in your so called decades-long armed conflict or many other armed conflict, we supplied the weapons.
So yes I can guess when people are brainwashed and make hastily conclusions that would lead to more division, conflict, and violence.
No sophisticated knowledge needed. Just a clear head free of propaganda and more forgiving.
Don't be so sophmoric. I see said the blind man.
There is a song in Spanish by Arjona that goes: le encendí la hoguera al infierno. Translates to I lit up the fire of hell. It’s always fun to read the comments when Israel and Palestine are mentioned in the same article.
Ryanair hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory the last few days with the chief pilot being fired for multiple sexual harassment incidents and now this episode of bad judgment. Even more reasons to never fly Ryanair.
Part of me wonders if this FA is confusing Tel Aviv and Jerusalem? Maybe she was that ignorant that she mistakes them. Obviously the “ownership” of Jerusalem is strongly contested whereas the same can’t be said of Tel Aviv.
Hi Irish Alan - no, she knew exactly what she was doing. This type of rhetoric is totally common among the anti-Israel crowd ("Tel Aviv is occupied").
@JR
Your quick conclusion like this is what causes a never ending religious war spanning millenniums.
You need to learn about Hanlon's razor and propagandas.
And you sound like an ignorant outsider who has no awareness of the region or the discourse surrounding it. Good day!
@JR
Maybe taking a step back outside of all the hate and vendetta you have and you could see, maybe that FA is just only "an ignorant outsider who has no awareness of the region or the discourse surrounding it"
Your possible scenario might have a slight chance at being plausible if the terminology were in general use, i.e. welcome to our flight to palestine. Such a scenario might be borderline explainable. The truth is, the word palestine is not in general use, Ryanair does not fly there and this was quite likely a political stunt. The action that followed, obscuring a name tag and threatening passengers was not the behavior flowing an innocent slip of the tongue.
Her judgment is awful, and for that she should be fired. She poses a risk to everyone with whom she flies. In an emergency, will she only help people she finds "acceptable?" Will she refuse to help anyone wearing a yarmulke?
Who knows?
But the fact that she chose to pick this kind of fight, on a plane (a confined space with a captive audience), and then *escalate* it by threatening to have...
Her judgment is awful, and for that she should be fired. She poses a risk to everyone with whom she flies. In an emergency, will she only help people she finds "acceptable?" Will she refuse to help anyone wearing a yarmulke?
Who knows?
But the fact that she chose to pick this kind of fight, on a plane (a confined space with a captive audience), and then *escalate* it by threatening to have someone arrested, makes her precisely the kind of person you do NOT want on a plane for any reason, as a passenger, even, least of all as a flight attendant whose job is to ensure safety, which include de-escalating conflict vs. CREATING it.
Maybe the FA can apply for a job at UA; having passengers arrested and forcibly offloaded is something Dr Dao can relate to.
She threatened to have passengers arrested on landing? Unless the Palestinian Authority police are at Ben-Gurion Airport than she is a complete idiot.
We knew THAT...
There wasn't never a "Palestine". Maybe she got confused with Jordan, the real "Palestine"?
Such a nonsense statements.
Sorry Julia, what is false about it?
Everything?
Julia, you need to learn how to read and comprehend facts.
There never was a Palestine. The "Palestinians" were Jordanians prior to 1967.
My reading is fine, it's your ignorance and falsehoods regarding the situation that are the issue.
It is actually your lack of knowledge, spouting lines you have heard but not bothering to check their veracity. There never was a Palestine, regardless of how many times you state it or heard it.
Wow, that's simplistic and misleading. You should read some of the Israeli revisionist historians.
“I don’t want to make this an Israel vs. Palestine debate”
Sure, Jan.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
Even the PLO doesn't think Tel Aviv is in Palestine...
If Ryanair fires her then I doubt she will be hired by El al:)