Low-cost airline JetBlue called the police on a Jewish passenger and charged him with “causing a disturbance” after he objected to a flight attendant’s Palestinian flag pin, the aggrieved passenger revealed to DailyMail.com.
Paul Faust, 54, said he quietly made a complaint about the pin to a supervisor on the plane, but when he landed, a uniformed officer demanded to see his identification, claimed he had caused a disturbance, called the police and then canceled his return. . flight.
Faust, who is Jewish, accuses the airline of “blatant anti-Semitism” over the incident.
A JetBlue spokesperson said they are investigating what happened.
In an exclusive interview, Faust said he was flying to Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday when he noticed a flight attendant wearing several pins, including a Palestinian flag and a Black Lives Matter badge.
Paul Faust, pictured with his partner Rachelle Almagor on the JetBlue flight, accused the airline of anti-Semitism.
Faust, who is Jewish, told DailyMail.com that he was offended to see a flight attendant, who has not been identified, flaunting a Palestinian flag pin on her uniform during the flight.
The airline attendant was wearing several pins, including a Palestinian flag and a Black Lives Matter badge.
The Parkland, Florida-based telecommunications businessman told DailyMail.com that he wasn’t happy to see the flag, but didn’t want to cause trouble, so he kept quiet about it, reasoning that he had something equivalent: a Jewish tattoo. visible.
But he said that when the crew member put on an apron to serve drinks and moved the Palestine pin over it so it was still visible, he took it as a deliberate provocation.
“I walked up to the front and said to the senior assistant, ‘I just want to tell you that I’m a frequent traveler, and it was annoying that she wore that, and that she just changed that pin on the front of the apron.’ The others didn’t,” he said. Faust to DailyMail.com.
“She said, ‘Okay, I’ll talk to her.’
“I said, ‘I don’t want there to be any problems.’ Maybe I’ll talk to her after we get off the plane. Let’s just talk about how maybe it was a little insensitive, it made me feel a little uncomfortable.”
‘I returned to my seat. I didn’t say anything to this flight attendant during the entire flight.
But as he disembarked, Faust, a father of two and volunteer firefighter, said the attendant pointed him toward another JetBlue staff member in a yellow vest, who began questioning him.
‘He says: ‘Lord! I need to talk with you.’ Fausto told DailyMail.com. ‘Then let’s go to the top of the ramp. I say, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, “The disturbance you caused on the plane.” I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘He said, ‘I’m going to need to see your ID.’ Our pilot called about the disturbance you caused. I said, ‘I didn’t cause any disturbance.’ I won’t give you my ID.
Fausto said it was only after the crew member put on an apron to serve drinks and moved the Palestine pin over it to make sure it was still visible that he felt provoked.
When the plane landed in Las Vegas, Faust claims, airline staff stopped him as he disembarked, questioning him about what they described as a “disturbance” he had caused (file image).
“He said, ‘I’m going to call the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.’ I said ‘do it.’ So he calls the police and says, ‘I’m here with a passenger who caused a disturbance on our flight.'”
‘One time he said I just walked away. She wasn’t going to sit by while he made up lies.
Faust said the next day the airline canceled his flight home without telling him, and when he called customer service he was surprised.
‘They read me the notes. It said ‘Mr. Fausto caused a disturbance on the flight, he didn’t listen to the instructions of the flight crew’ – not true, they didn’t give me any instructions – ‘he didn’t listen to the supervisor at the gate… And Mr. Fausto said that everyone should go to Gaza so they can kill them.’
“That wasn’t true at all,” he said. ‘I had a conversation with the woman sitting next to me, who talked about LGBTQ queers from Palestine. We had a calm conversation, without addressing the flight attendant.
‘I said ‘yeah, it’s a bit sad because if they went there, they’d be killed.’ I had no communication with the flight attendant.
‘I specifically told the head stewardess that I didn’t want me to talk to her while I was on the plane because I didn’t want them to be interrupted. Then they have lied. They listened to his story, never asked me, and canceled my flight home.
The passenger who sat next to Fausto, Rachelle Almagor, confirmed his story and shared with DailyMail.com photographs she took of the attendant during the flight.
Almagor, 45, is an Israeli-American Jew who also resides in Florida.
‘My daughter lost her best friend in Gaza. He was kidnapped and murdered. So it was very uncomfortable for me to have to see that Free Palestine pin,” she told DailyMail.com.
Faust is a father of two and a volunteer firefighter based in Parkland, Florida.
He also works as a telecommunications businessman.
‘When we were getting off the plane, security was waiting for us, asking us for our IDs and boarding passes. We weren’t saying anything bad. It was crazy.
“She needs to be fired immediately.
“From the moment I got off the plane to the hotel I was shaking. I immediately called JetBlue and canceled my flight. I was supposed to leave tonight and I changed it to American Airlines.
“I’ve been a Mosaic member for 10 years, a loyal traveler,” Faust said, referring to JetBlue’s loyalty program.
‘This is what’s happening now. It’s one thing for it to happen on college campuses with kids who don’t know what they’re doing. This is now a corporation that, for better or worse, allows an employee to use that pin, but then allows them to treat a customer that way.
“JetBlue doesn’t look good.”
A third passenger, Noel Ruiz, who was seated opposite Fausto and Almagor, told DailyMail.com that he did not see any disturbance on the plane.
‘I did not see anything. There was no disturbance,’ he stated.
After sharing her Instagram story with her 26,000 followers on Monday, dozens of people commented on Faust’s post saying they would no longer fly with the airline.
Faust is an ardent supporter of Israel and regularly posts videos on his Instagram criticizing pro-Palestinian protesters and praising Israel’s response to Hamas terrorist attacks.
In one of the most controversial videos he has posted, he suggested that protesters who chanted “We are Hamas” at pro-Palestinian rallies should be “sent to Guantanamo Bay” for aligning themselves with a terrorist organization.
A JetBlue spokesperson told DaiyMail.com that the New York-based company is investigating what happened.
‘JetBlue is committed to providing a respectful and welcoming environment for all of our customers and crew members.
“We are urgently investigating this incident, contacting the customer to learn first-hand about their experience and speaking to the crew members involved to understand whether the actions taken were consistent with our policies and customer service standards.”
