Australian airline crew flaunt Palestinian badges during flight, trigger outrage

The cabin crew on an aircraft operated by Australia’s national carrier Qantas sparked outrage and triggered calls for them to be fired after they wore Palestinian flag badges during a flight last month from Melbourne to Hobart. The Qantas crew members were photographed by a passenger with the small Palestinian badge pin attached to their uniforms. The airline has clarified that it is against their policy to wear unapproved badges on uniforms and that it will remind all staff of the rules. Harrison Grafanakis, who was a passenger on the December 20 flight, told Sky News in a Wednesday report: “I saw a bunch of staff working for Qantas — they were all wearing Palestinian flags.” “They say that it’s not allowed, but Qantas have a history of doing this – they’ve done this time and time again,” said Grafanakis, who is not Jewish. “It’s so disappointing to see a major Australian airline carrier that receives so much government money getting so involved in politics time and time again.” Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission civil rights organization, charged in a statement that the pro-Palestinian display was intimidating and inappropriate. “It seems that in Australia, even the skies are not immune to propaganda,” Abramovich said. “Let me be very clear: this was intimidation and harassment, pure and simple, and violated every rule of air travel,” he said. “This type of bullying should have never been allowed by the team leader on that flight and they have a lot to answer for,” added Abramovich, who has family members who narrowly survived the Hamas massacre in southern Israeli communities on October 7. “An airplane is one of those places where passengers should not be forcibly subjected to in-your-face propaganda, especially at a time when hateful anti-Israel rhetoric and vilification has been skyrocketing across the country. The cabin crew knew exactly what the effect and impact of their conduct would have.” A spokesperson for Qantas told Sky News: “Cabin crew are not allowed to wear any badges unless they are part of the approved uniform policy.” “Every customer should feel safe and respected when flying on a Qantas Aircraft.” The spokesperson further elaborated that the airline’s staff was being reminded of the uniform policy following the incident. Crew are only permitted to wear a national badge if they speak the language of that country, the Daily Mail reported. An online petition calling on Qantas to fire the crew members involved had by Thursday collected over 2,000 signatures. Anti-Semitism has spiked in Australia and other countries around the world amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas. War erupted when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, invading the south of the country from the Gaza Strip with thousands of terrorists. The attack killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians who were massacred as the terrorists rampaged through communities. On the same day, nearly 360 people were murdered at an outdoor music festival on the borders of Israel. The terrorists also abducted at least 240 people who were taken hostage into Gaza. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at destroying Hamas, removing it from power in Gaza, and freeing the hostages. Also in December, a Jewish woman filed a complaint over an alleged in-flight incident when she flew from Melbourne to Ballina with Jetstar, a budget airline owned by Qantas. The woman told Sky News she was left feeling “furious” when at the end of the take-off announcement, a Qantas member of staff added “Free Palestine.” Sky News reported that Jetstar apparently investigated the incident and put it down to “misunderstanding or mishearing.” In late November, Karin Kalif, who lives in Brisbane, filed a complaint with Qantas claiming she had faced anti-Israel rhetoric when she checked in for a flight back to Australia from Israel. Kalif, who had friends who were killed in the Hamas October 7 slaughter, said that a Qantas check-in employee asked her if she could “hear the bombs your government is dropping [on Gaza].” The Sky News report did not say where the incident happened and there are no direct flights from Israel to Australia. In a latest update, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday that over 22,300 people had been killed since the start of the war. Those figures cannot be independently verified and are believed to include some 8,500 Hamas fighters, as well as civilians killed by misfired Palestinian rockets. Another estimated 1,000 Hamas terrorists were killed in Israel during the October 7 onslaught.