A pair of Jewish passengers claim they were booted from an American Airlines flight at Miami International Airport after the gate agents noticed that one of them was wearing a Star of David necklace symbolizing their faith.
Miriam Einhorn and Rivki Gluck are now suing American Airlines in a New Jersey district court, accusing the carrier of religious discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress over the “extreme and outrageous manner” they were bounced from the flight.
The incident occurred on the morning of November 18, 2024, when Mirian and Rivki arrived at Miami International Airport to catch an American Airlines flight to Newark, which had already been delayed and had its boarding time changed to 8:42 am.
The pair passed through TSA security at around 8 am and managed to get to the gate at around 8:50 am while the boarding process was still well underway.
Miriam and Rivki say that joined the line of passengers waiting to get through the gate and onto the jetbridge to board their flight but when they reached the front of the line, they were both “abruptly bounced” from the flight and their seats were given to two other people.
The gate agents told Miriam and Rivki that they had been booted from the flight because they showed up late at the gate, but the pair isn’t buying that reason and believe it was because the agents had spotted the Star of David necklace that Rivki was wearing around her neck.
A complaint filed in federal court claims that the agents gave Miriam and Rivki hostile stares from the moment they joined the boarding line and laughed at them as they dismissed their pleas to be allowed on board the plane.
Even a supervisor at the gate waved them away and an agent at the rebooking desk “falsely” claimed that they had shown up too late to be permitted to board.
The only alternative flight that American Airlines could offer them with confirmed seats departed Miami nearly 12 hours later and to secure these seats Miriam and Rivki were forced to pay an additional $25 each.
Having waited around all day, the pair spoke to the gate agent ahead of their rebooked flight. On this occasion, the agent told them that they only needed to arrive at the gate 15 minutes before the flight’s departure time.
The lawsuit claims that Mirmiam and Rivki were removed from the flight “either wholly or partially, because of their Jewish faith.”
Earlier this year, another American Airlines passenger accused a flight attendant of antisemitism after he spotted the crew member wearing a watermelon pin badge while the plane was on the ground at Miami airport.
A video of the incident filmed by the passenger starts with the man confronting two female crew members while telling them: “You’re supporting terrorism, you’re supporting terrorism with your pin [badge].”
The watermelon pin badge has become a popular way for people to display their solidarity with the Palestinian people. The watermelon is said to symbolize the Palestinian flag and is often worn when wearing an actual Palestine pin badge has been banned.
Very much doubt this had anything to do with the jewellery more likely just overbooking.
Given thh US stance on supporting the ongoing Israeli attacks on women and children in Gaza, it seems highly unlikely that Judaism played any part.
Kind of a funny comment John – so world history started on October 8th 2023? What do you call the people who support a group that specifically targeted 1200 civilian men, women and children for rape, murder and to be held hostage where they were also raped, tortured and murdered? Or the group that could have stopped all this death if they had just released those hostages? Can you please provide the evidence that Israeli soldiers have been taking civilian hostages for the purposes of torture or have paraded civilians and dead infants on TV and praised their deaths? It’s funny how people like you want to start the clock of history so recently and are quick to forget the Palestinians were well documented allies of Hitler prior to the existence of Israel working to complete one of the largest genocides in human history (ironic they make a genocide claim against Israel). The Palestinian people use their own as human shields and allow them to keep dying by not returning hostages which would end all of this. I would have much more respect for people like you if you could just say this is all about hating jews and nothing more…if it was really about loss of life there are many more conflicts in the world right now costing more lives. But yes, the United States should instead support an extreme theocracy that executes gays (as it is a death penalty offence) and treats women as property and yes, the US should support the people who have been burning American flags for decades, celebrating 9/11 and chanting death to America. If you really cared about civilians being killed, where was your outrage on October 7th where was it on 9/11. Your extremism is no different than what you claim of Israelis – two sides of the same coin.
While this is far from impossible Miami has a thriving sizeable Jewish community so if this was in fact antisemitism there should be other evidence to illustrate that the gate agent is targeting specific groups.
On a separate note, wouldn’t the appropriate court be the one in Miami rather than New Jersey since that’s where this occurred?