The B’tsalmo Human Rights in the Jewish Spirit organization is urging Ryanair to fire an employee who announced on loudspeaker that Tel Aviv is part of “occupied Palestine.”
The letter, signed by B’tsalmo CEO Shai Glick, was sent to Ryanair, the Israeli Embassy in Dublin, the Irish Embassy in Israel, and Israel’s Foreign Minister, Transportation Minister, and Diaspora Affairs Minister.
It describes, “Passengers on a Ryanair flight from Italy to Tel Aviv (FR 3794 on June 10, 2023)
were shocked after a flight attendant repeatedly described their final destination as ‘Occupied Palestine.'”
“‘All passengers are requested to return to their seats as the plane is about to land in Tel-Aviv in occupied Palestine,’ the flight attendant said, repeating the sentence several times in English and Italian.”
The letter continued, “Ryanair”s CEO reportedly apologized and said he was ‘100% satisfied that this
was an innocent mistake with no political overtones or intent.'”
“We find the incident highly offensive and the lame excuse provided in the apology to be dishonest and insulting. This was clearly an intentional and highly offensive and malicious political statement by the flight attendant. The name of a country is not something that people make ‘innocent mistakes’ about, especially not in the context of the highly sensitive Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

“The attendant’s statement severely upset and humiliated your customers on that flight and around the world and may have even caused fear that the flight was hijacked by terrorists. Management’s insulting excuse has made it even worse,” the letter continued. “At this point, many Israeli and Jewish passengers would feel uncomfortable to travel on Ryanair, since the abusive flight attendant is still employed by
Ryanair and because the lame response from Ryanair”s management is likely to encourage other Ryanair staff to insult and humiliate Israeli customers in the future.”
“Ryanair management should release a new statement acknowledging the attendant”s malicious behavior.
“We urge Ryanair to dismiss that employee. If Ryanair fails to do so, many Israeli and Jewish customers will be hesitant to use Ryanair”s services in the future.”