Australian flag carrier Qantas is resisting mounting calls to sack several flight attendants who wore ‘unauthorised’ Palestinian flag pins on their uniforms during a flight from Melbourne to Hobart last month.
A passenger on the flight photographed the crew members with the Palestinian flag prominently displayed on their lapels in full view of passengers.
The airline says that it has reminded its employees not to wear unauthorised pins but has so far made no comment on whether further disciplinary action will be taken against the crew members involved.
“We understand there are strong and opposing views on the current conflict, but there is no room for these to be expressed by our employees in the workplace,” the embattled airline said in a statement on Thursday.
“Unauthorised badges can’t be worn by employees and we’ve reinforced this to the crew member involved, along with the seriousness of this particular matter,” the statement continued. “We have also reminded all employees of this policy.”
“Our priority is creating a safe and respectful environment for our customers and all our people.”
A Qantas spokesperson said the airline doesn’t intend to make any further statement on the controversy even as anger starts to mount amongst Australia’s Jewish community.
The Australian Jewish Association has joined a growing petition to have the crew members involved in the incident sacked.
Last month, a Jewish passenger on a flight operated by Qantas’ budget subsidiary Jetstar from Melbourne alleged that a crew member proclaimed “Free Palestinian” during an inflight announcement.
Jetstar said it investigated the complaint but determined that the passenger had misunderstood or misheard what had been said by the flight attendant.
Many airlines allow flag pins for languages they speak.
Hardly the same situation. They wore pins featuring the flag of Palestine. This is not a foreign language. They were making a political statement, by wearing these badges, which is prohibited under the contract with their employer. They must be dismissed immediately.
I’ve followed the Israeli/Palestinian conflict for decades. The majority of these Hamas sympathizers are ignorant to history and have only followed the conflict since Oct 7th when Hamas brutally attacked Israel and started this war. Political opinions and personal views have no business at work.
So Qantas airlines has terrorist supporters as air hostesses now. Good to know what airlines not to fly..
An excellent reason not to fly Quantas if these odious flight attendants are not sacked immediately.