Dear Dr. Rosenberg, Jetblue Didn’t Throw You Off For Being Jewish, They Threw You Off For Being Racist … NEXT
A week ago, on the 7th of July, as Jetblue Flight 454 prepared to depart from Gate C12, at West Palm Beach International Airport, a conflict arose between Lisa Rosenberg, M.D., a Jewish doctor from New York, seated in seat 7E and woman identified as a Palestinian in seat 9C.
On the 10th of July the Palm Beach Post published “Woman kicked off plane at PBIA after argument about Israel conflict “ in which the article states that that Dr. Rosenberg stated the Palestinian woman in seat 9C used racial slurs, threatened her daughter and Dr. Rosenberg is quoted as saying the incident was an “ugly, racially driven altercation” and that she “was completely outraged that I would be asked to leave a plane, being a Jew” …
… however …
… prior to Dr. Rosenberg’s statements to the Palm Beach Post the Jetblue flight attendant at the center of this incident filed her report that tells a much different story of the events as they unfolded on board Flight 454.
The initial internal report and final internal reports, both filed prior to the Palm Beach Post story, which I have been able to read in their entirely, and then verify, both squarely paint Dr. Rosenberg as the sole instigator of the events on board Flight 454. Furthermore both internal reports of the incident clearly lay out Dr. Rosenberg as the person who was in the midst of spewing hateful comments towards the Palestinian passenger in seat 9C, not vise versa.
The flight attendant’s reports states that the passengers in seats 12C and 11A were gesturing for her to quickly come to the front of the cabin during the boarding process, and began pleading with her to calm the situation between Dr. Rosenberg in seat 7E and the Palestinian woman in 9C.
The official internal report goes on to state that the flight attendant witnessed Dr. Rosenberg accuse the woman in 9C of being a “Palestinian murderer” and that “ her people are all murders and that they murder children,” while Dr. Rosenberg was attempting move through the cabin and position herself physically closer to the woman in Seat 9C.
Additional passengers on board Flight 454 continued to express concern for the their safety as Dr. Rosenberg continued to rant, even after being instructed by the flight attendant to cease her engagement with the woman in seat 9C, at which time the cabin crew requested a Complaint Resolution Official from the airline be contacted to board the aircraft, and Dr. Rosenberg was informed of FAM 2-13, G PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION, G.1 Race, Creed, or Colour, which says ” JetBlue provides equal service to all passengers regardless of race,creed, or colour.”
The official internal reports go on to state Dr. Rosenberg continued to openly verbalize offensive and inappropriate language while ranting about Gaza and the Palestinians.
Upon arrival of Jetblue’s Complaint Resolution Official the crew, including the Captain, needed to make a determination regarding regulation FAM 7-4, A.3.1 On The Ground, which lays out whether of not the removal of a passenger in necessary for the reasonable safety and comfort of other passengers.
As the Complaint Resolution Official began to speak directly with Dr. Rosenberg, she began to not only continue to verbally attack the woman in seat 9C, but openly imply that the woman had explosives in her bag and intended to blow up the aircraft in flight.
At this time Dr. Rosenberg launched in to a familiar rant flight attendant are accustomed to, threatening to make sure the flight attendant would be fired as she was removed from the aircraft and met on the jetway by officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department.
… through all of this, Jetblue Flight 454 managed to push off the gate only four minutes late and arrive at New York’s JFK International Airport’s Terminal 5 Gate 25 10 minutes early.
Now … of course the moral of this story is this … and I say this as a Jewish guy from New York … folks … we’re all in it together.
You cannot judge someone by their religion or their nationality and people need to stop blaming religious persecution for being removed from flights when in fact they were removed based upon their own actions. Jetblue’s internal reports lay out an exceptionally detailed accounting of the incident, with multiple witnesses to the incident and it would seem by all accounts Dr. Lisa Rosenberg, M.D., was out of line and spewing all the hate towards one passenger. When a passenger is verbally abusive towards others on the aircraft and proceeds to position themselves physically closer to a person they have picked a fight with, they should be removed from the aircraft. This is not a religious or racial issue; this is a safety and security issue.
Happy Flying … except Dr. Rosenberg, may I suggest renting a car and driving by yourself next time.
For just a moment, let’s say that what happened before the flight attendant’s arrival was nasty Let’s assume the Palestinian Woman provoked her horribly. Dr. Rosenbloom had a choice. She could lower herself to respond, or she could rise above it and shut up. She didn’t shut up. By all accounts, she escalated, to a point that she was interfering with the airline, throwing out false accusations of a bomb, and making a lot of people extremely insecure. What was the Palestinian Woman doing? She also had a choice. She could continue her (assumed) nastiness, or she could shut up. She chose to shut up. It was the doctor who could not control herself. For that reason, and that alone, she was removed. Her faith had nothing to do with it. It was the consequenceof her choices.s
Seriously guys don’t believe anything. i can point towards 5 sites that say the Palestinian women was right and 5 sites saying the jewish women was right. whoever crys loudest gets the media attention. Personally i am a supporter of israel and i condemn the hamas rocket fire. Israel has no choice but to defend itself and its citizens.
My money is on Fish!
Joe,
How is your view of Israel vs Hamas relevant here?
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Thank you Barbara
Happy Flying!
-Fish
I am not a Jew nor a Muslim. It is sad that the discrimination from both sides is getting out of control. I do not understand the folks commenting here BTW. You may be, very well, Jewish and I respect that fact. But just because some restless Jewish woman was kicked from an aircraft because of her inappropriate behavior should not be taken as if it was against to all Jews. She is only responsible for her own behavior and she is not representing her Jewish community. So please calm down. Furthermore, I do not buy the statement that “before the flight attendants arrived”. We all know that the first people to board and meet everybody else with a big smile are the flight attendants. There is no such a thing that crew boards after the passengers. Just accept the fact that this woman was way too emotional and was not able to control her anger and hate. Her being a doctor doesn’t change anything if it does not make it look even worse. I hope she got her lesson.
Its interesting how in a post this is even mildly critical of someone who happens to be Israeli or Jewish, all the internet trolls converge to rip the author to shreds. There are people who have commented that Arabs are taught to hate jews ‘from the womb’. That’s an idiotic comment. Firstly because, Arabs and jews are not mutually exclusive. While it is often positioned as us vs them, it really isn’t. Secondly, muslim arabs and jews have lived peacefully for centuries and continue to do so outside of the Arab world. In the popular American narrative, the Arab is always at fault as anyone of Jewish origin can do no wrong, and yet we see that militancy and aggression is often directed towards Arabic population not the other way round.
Thanks for calling a spade a spade. Anyone behaving inappropriate needs to be dealt with regardless of class, creed, religion or ethnicity.
Asians are the Master Race.
Jews, Arabs, whites, blacks, Indians and Hispanics are all inferior races.
Thank you for posting this and telling it as it is. Hate is hate, whoever it arises from. The passenger that was kicked off the plane clearly demonstrated hatred to another human being, and her actions should not be tolerated in this day and age.
Thank you flyingfish!
I’m writing this because I am the woman in 9C and if you need me to fax you my boarding pass , I’ll be happy to do so.
Many people on this post are wondering what happened before the Flight Attendant arrived at the so called “altercation”, which actually took only a few seconds.
While we were waiting to board the plane , Dr. Rosenberg was ranting in a extremely loud voice on her cell phone about the situation in Israel and saying very disparaging remarks about Palestinians. This very loud phone conversation went on about 10- 15 minutes and continued when we got on the plane.
I did approach Dr. Rosenberg and very quietly told her I’m Palestinian and her ranting was very offensive. I returned to my seat and suddenly Dr. Rosenberg began approaching me screaming vile epithets . I never called her any ethnic or religious slurs which she accused me of in the media. In fact , a passenger came forward on a blog and called me “older and meek”. Within seconds the Flight Attendant approached .
I only wish someone did videotape this with their phone so people would be able to witness the event.
There is only one victim here: JetBlue , who has been unfairly maligned and slandered.
Dear Vicky,
Just because I can string four letters together and use a socially unacceptable word, does not make it any more foul than your own language. You cannot be defending yourself against haters, because the evidence of your own words makes You the biggest hater in this thread. These things you call “facts” which you’re presenting to the rest of us, like a child proudly displaying its own feces, are only your own experiences, cherry-picked from a failing memory to justify your unrepentant and hateful conclusions.
Let me reiterate: I am telling you these things out of self-defense, as well as moral outrage. I do not want to be associated with you in any respect, and yet your speech can *still* be used to cast aspersions on the rest of us, as you’re currently allowing your own judgements to do of “all arabs”.
So please, apologize for your comments. It’s not the least you could do to make the world a better place for everyone, but it’s a much better start.
Fish,
I don’t know, of course, how things wen down prior or during etc. But reading through your comments you yourself appear extremely biased.
When it comes to JetBlue’s perspective, people need to look past the race issue. Think of it as two generic people (no race, religion, etc. attached) having an argument. Flight attendant comes up, it doesn’t matter who started it, but right now one person is continuing it, and after the flight attendant tells that person to please calm down, the person falsely insinuates the other is trying to blow up the plane with explosives in her bag.
At that point, that person loses the argument. Again, race and religion have nothing to do with JetBlue’s decision. One person wouldn’t calm down when told to and then made a bomb threat, which would make other passengers nervous and is reason to be thrown off of the plane.
Sounds like she got kicked off for a good reason.
The one thing I can see that the other women did wrong was approach her in the first place. Why would you walk up to a women, because she is Jewish, identify yourself as a Palestinian, and then start the confrontation?
This was going bad from the start. Emotions took over from that point.
Poor Palestinian… I almost cried reading the article… Internal investigation and so on… Such BS! Jet Blue crew against one woman….
I know one thing from now on: no more flights with Jet Blue!
Thank you. When this story came out it smelled “fishy”. There’s just no way JetBlue would take such one sided action with an aircraft full of witnesses. If so much were true the good doctor would be searching for passengers who witnessed this wrong doing. Thank you! And for all of the readers out there, before you start speculations, I am a Jew. An Israeli, right wing, who values ALL human beings and life, who HATES racism. Never judge a book by its cover! THANK YOU FISH!!!
Just curious, why did you take offense at Vicky’s post and single her out for a lecture, but let Mary’s comment slide? I would think Mary needs to expand her horizons and meet new people as well. It probably has something to do with you being an expert and knowing everything, but who knows…
William,
What did Mary say that I missed? The upside, thank you for taking the time to read all the comments.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
VICKY says:
“Why are you so quick to side with the palestenian? ? Where did you get all your facts? Did you speak with Dr. Rosenberg? The Palestenian woman? I fly a lot and it is downright NAUSEATING how the airline crews are always SO OVERLY accomadating to the MUSLIMS DRESSSED IN THEIR SCARY Muslim garb”
Scary garb? Really? If you are judging people based on their “scary garb”, I think you are very mucch a part of the problem…
So Boba,
Let me get this straight, a woman verbally accosts a Palestinian woman, ignores instructions from a flight attendant and complaint resolution official, then makes a false statement of another passenger having explosives , leading to her removal with the approval of the captain … and you’re done flying Jetblue?
Well, that is well reasoned logic.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Dina,
How am I extremely biased? I am biased based on reading multiple internal reports, both filed prior to Dr. Rosenberg’s statements being made public?
Happy Flying!
-Fish
JK,
Thank you for bringing your side of the situation to light. I appreciate you taking the time to come forward, it is appreciated.
Happy Flying … hopefully with less stress next time.
-Fish
Utterly fantastic post. I can’t believe this woman who is a doctor is lying like this.
She should be sued as she is slandering an airline and a liar.
As a Jew, I am ashamed of Dr. Rosenberg.
After reading the post from the passenger in question 9C I am even more angry that the Doctor has created such animosity amongst people. She went public and lied all because she was escorted out and I bet the Doctor is not use to this type of treatment.. So she goes and gets people all riled up and now when the press are questioning her statement and there are rebuttals to it she has obtained an attorney and will not answer questions.. I think she is smart to get a attorney because if all this is true with evidence/reports/passenger statements then JB should sue her for the mess she started and ban her from flying them.. For those of you who prefer to turn a blind eye and not want to hear the truth I say don’t fly this airline go somewhere else.. I am sure the company after reading many of your posts may question if a no fly list should include all of you who condemn without warrant.
Since 9/11, there isn’t a Jewish or Christian man or woman with a brain who gets on a plane and doesn’t suspect every muslim passenger of being a possible problem.
Flyingfish,
Thanks for posting this information. I wish more news outlets covered it the way that you did, and thank you for your continued contribution to aviation. As a Muslim, I couldn’t agree with you more. We’re all in this together. Ignorance and tyranny, no matter who or where, are our common enemy. It’s about people, not about politics or religion.
And to respond to some of the comments here: what does being Muslim or Jewish have anything to do with this? That’s irrelevant. I’m Muslim and I fly. Does that make me “scary?” I’ve been in more cockpits than most people can count. So what? Does that make me a terrorist? Does that make it such that every time there is an incident, I have to be suspected first before anyone else just like the Palestinian woman in this altercation?
It’s not religion or politics that drive people crazy. It’s people that drive people crazy. Conflicts aren’t started by religion or even politics. They’re started by people. When you look into them, you realize that it’s people going after their own goals; religious or political conviction and justification are nothing more than means to a limited and unjustified personal end.
We’re smarter than that, and as Flyingfish said, we’re all in this together.
Now let’s go have some falaffels and hummus and go plane spotting.
AviatorGuy,
Great, now I want some halal shawarma … thanks for making me hungry ;0)
Happy Flying!
-Fish
FF,
As a Jewish guy, who has spent a lot of time flying, including in the MidEast, I would have to disagree with you.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
FF says
“Since 9/11, there isn’t a Jewish or Christian man or woman with a brain who gets on a plane and doesn’t suspect every muslim passenger of being a possible problem.”
Speak for yourself. You certainly don’t speak for me. I am sick of intrusive “security” and it’s people like you who make things easy for those who want to bring in more and more restrictive regulations. More and more intrusive laws.
You really need to cop yourself on. Every Arab or Muslim in the world is not out to “get you”.
Vicky
Quite apart from the famous Imam of the Paris mosque who put his own life repeatedly at risk by providing fake Muslim IDs for French Jews destined for gassing, the number of Muslims who gave their lives for Britain fighting Hitler in the second World War (which I guess you would say was defending Jews) was sufficient that Churchill made it a War Cabinet priority during the Battle of Britain to set aside money to build London’s first proper mosque. Oh, and Field Marshal Montgomery reckoned he couldn’t have defeated Rommel without the thousands of Muslims in his army. So take your nasty racism and your paranoid fear of people who dress differently from you, and shove it. Oh, and please, if you want to get attitudinal like the lying Rosenberg MD on a flight I’m on, expect to be put off it. Have a nice day.
why do people read blogs anyway
Steven,
So glad the Palestinian lady wrote in and told her side of the story. If the situation unfolded as the lady in 9C says it did, like you Nancy, I am very upset with Dr. Rosenberg.
Listen you muppets who keep saying Arabs are anti Semitic. Arabs are as Semitic as Israelites. Stop distorting facts as one can not be anti self
Wow…I see Frischling is a self-hating kike. Siding with the Palestinkians agaisnt a fellow Jew
Shande fur de goyim, that’s you, Frischling.
NEVER AGAIN!
Chaim ben Mordechai,
First off, how could you possibly use the term kike? Secondly, how did I side with a Palestinian? I sided with the airline’s decision to remove Dr. Lisa Rosenberg after se repeatedly failed to obey instructions from a Flight Attendant, then a Complaint Resolution Official, then proceeded to imply a fellow passenger had brought a bomb on board and intended to blow it up. She should have ended up met by the JTTF rather than just escorted out by the Sheriff’s Office.
The brokh here is that ameratses continually comes to the forefront. Chaim yankels such as yourself and Dr. Rosenberg make this world a more troubling place. Talking to you eingeshparht people is impossible and you end up making everything farcockt.
Why don’t you gay avek and gai kukken afen yam you drek.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Flying Fish,
Just wanted to say “thank you” for posting this information. I was actually searching for more information about the incident because the article being circulated on Facebook didn’t add up. After reading your article and the comments, I feel like I have a better sense of what happened and I have linked your blog post to places where I’ve seen other versions posted.
Jim
Well Mr. Steve,
We read blogs to be informed. This blog is generally a niche’ blog focused on aviation and transportation security. Sure I cover other topics along the way, but the focus is my area of expertise covering a topic I have covered as a professional journalist since 2001
Happy Flying!
-Fish
“Since 9/11, there isn’t a Jewish or Christian man or woman with a brain who gets on a plane and doesn’t suspect every muslim passenger of being a possible problem”
FF,
I think you are speaking on your behalf. I am a proud Christian and my church never teaches me to judge people the way you do. It is heart breaking that you people are trying to discriminate an entire religion and its followers. When I was diagnosed cancer, my doctor was a Turkish woman who probably looks more Western than any Christian or Jewish in the West. She saved my life not with only her knowledge but with her love. And she has always been generous to our church with the youth programs although she was not a Christian. If we need to discuss and discriminate people by their dressing and appearance, we might talk about Orthodox Jews or the Amish as well. But this would not be right.
God bless your hearts.
Rachel,
I never said what you are quoting me as saying. You are quoting a commenter on this blog post who I completely disagreed with and quite frankly I found the personally offensive.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
FF was the “name” the commenter used. Not yours, Fish.
Happy day,
I know someone who was on that plane and the Palestinian passenger started it by screaming at her–“Zionist pig.” Of course you begin the story with Dr. Rosenberg’s response, as if that was the beginning of the incident.
That is like looking at Hiroshima and saying that America murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese. What about Pearl Harbor. Anti-Israel and antisemites do this al the time–they look at Israel’s response to terrorism as if Israel acted first.
That is immoral and so is the way this story is presented.
Irwin,
Two things
1) Please have the person you know who was on board the flight contact me directly and send me a copy of their boarding pass that I can validate. I have heard from ground staff at the airline, and read statements from others present at the scene I can validate and none of them are aware of any out bursts from the woman in 9C towards Dr. Rosenberg. The only ones who have made statements of an outburst or anything inflamatory by the woman in 9C, aside from Dr. Rosenberg are people who are unable to prove in any way they are on the aircraft or even at the airport.
2) Dr. Rosenberg was removed for failure to obey direct instruction from the flight attendant and complaint resolution official. Once Dr. Rosenberg stated the woman in 9C had an explosive and that she intended to blow up the aircraft she needed to be immediately removed from the aircraft. Her statements about a bomb being on board should have been met not by a mere escort out of the airport by the Sheriff Office, but by a questioning by the JTTF.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Well, I’m glad Flyingfish can at least be objective, unlike some here.
Just google Dr. Lisa Rosenberg, Fresh Meadows, NY and read the comments left by her patients on the doctor review sites. She’s got a screw loose people. And no amount of conjecturing will paint a scenario where the Palestinian woman was just as combative and obnoxious.
These b.s. seeds implanted in you whereby if a Jew did something wrong, it HAS to mean the Palestinian did something wrong – is one of the very reasons peace in the Middle East will never happen. There are jerks from every ethnic/racial group – and it doesn’t denigrate the entire group to say so.
Except in defensive little minds.
the palestinian called the doctor an ‘zionist pig’ first. thats when she lost it, and took it too far. if someone called me that i would go crazy too. at the end both should of been kicked off.
I have been reading this and am still quite alarmed that a woman who considers herself intelligent, (Vicki), considers, a veil covering everything but two eyes to be “scary”. Unfortunately, we seldom get the whole truth. We get two sides of truth in stories like this. We get a side and a side, and somewhere in between is that full story. Is there some prejudice here? Likely. It is likely on both sides. I grew up in the Middle East, and never learned of the existence of Israel until I came back to the United States and found out that it wasn’t Palestine below Lebanon according to the rest of the world. To say that Muslims are responsible for the terror in the world is to do an injustice to 99% of those people. Zealotry exists in every religion. Sadly, so does ignorance. Both need education to be eradicated.
Good post, FlyingFish.
Dr. Rosenberg has proven by her actions that she is socially clueless as well as a racist blabbermouth who cries wolf.
She appears to be one of those inconsiderate boors who blabber loudly on their cellphones before take-off, with half the cabin held hostage by their voice.
Worse, she was engaged in a contentious political conversation, in an enclosed, intimate area, within earshot of strangers.
Obstetrician? She was born in a barn.
Now, if someone could have debbie schlussel update her hate filled blog post, all would be right in the world…
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/73214/jetblue-removes-pro-israel-jews-after-palestinian-complains-hamasair
Doubt she will though…
Steve, thanks for your investigative reporting that casts a shadow
on flamethrowers like Debbie Schlussel Esq., who consistently manipulates
a story to fit her “victim psyche”.
If a jewess is batshit crazy, her advanced degrees and professional stature should not shield her from repercussion and consequences.
Dr. Rosenberg needs to spend more time in the mikveh and fly exclusively El-Al.