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Report: Palestinian Has Jew Kicked Off Airplane

A Jewish woman doctor from New York is claiming “hate crime” after an eavesdropping Palestinian woman had her booted from her flight home from Palm Beach.

The Palm Beach Post reports that New York physician Dr. Lisa Rosenberg said that, just prior to departure, she concluded a private phone conversation with a friend over the current events in Israel when the fellow passenger identified herself as a Palestinian and initiated an “ugly, racially driven altercation.”

“A woman comes up to me and says to me ‘I’m a Palestinian,’ and she starts cursing at me. ‘Zionist pig. This is just the beginning,’” Rosenberg told WPBF.com.

Rosenberg, whose daughter plans to study in Israel next year, claims she said nothing disparaging about Palestinians during her phone conversation with friend, Obstetrician Myles Kobren, but was instead complimenting Israeli authorities over the way they have handled recent arrests in connection with the murder of a Palestinian teenager.

“I was saying how it was good Israel found the students that killed the Palestinian teenager and how it was exemplary not making them into heroes, but seeking to publicly try them. I said any other country would have made these students out to be martyrs and celebrating them,” Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg said she was told by Jet Blue staff shortly thereafter that she must de-board the plane because the Palestinian passenger did not feel comfortable flying with her.

“I can’t believe it. I said, ‘Why would you do that?’ I said, ‘Why don’t you have her leave the plane?’” Rosenberg said. “I said, ‘The passenger, the Palestinian passenger, didn’t feel comfortable with me, the Jewish doctor being on the plane?’”

Reps for Jet Blue refused comment other than to say that Rosenberg’s account of the story “in no way reflects the report that we have.”

Rosenberg said she believes she is victim of a hate crime and has been in contact with the Anti-Defamation League who has promised to investigate the matter.

13 Comments

  • Jetblue

    Time to bombard jet blue with complaints and time to stop flying jetblue.

  • shame on Jet blue

    she should sue the airline. I will do my bit and call the airline and tell them I am a very frequent flyer on their airline but will not be using them anymore. If alot of people would call in and say something similar it might have an affect.

    • Crown height resident

      You can call them, but please make sure you have a frequent flyer number they can verify.

      The doctor must have said something disturbing for the airline to remove her out of concern for all passengers. We don’t know what kind of investigation the airline conducted prior to asking the doctor to deplane. Did they question other passengers? Did other passengers express concern? Did they also overhear her conversation?

      I would question whether the passenger was eavesdropping or jut overheard the conversation. Remember, there’s very little to do once you have been seated. Would it be possible that the doctor was a loud talker and impossible not to hear the conversation?

      There are always three sides to every story. I try not to have knee-jerk reactions when I clearly don’t know the full story. An airline the size of JetBlue wouldn’t act capriciously and hope they will soon comment.

      I wonder what peoples’ responses would be if ethnicities weren’t mentioned.

  • skeptical

    i think there is more to this story. i think we need an audio or video released from jet blue.

    • Yes

      And it seems this doctor is not exactly honest in her account. She left out a few important details, like she was harassing the Arab woman from the get go. But who really knows what happened, except other passengers.