N.Y. Jewish Doctor Kicked Off JetBlue Flight for Ranting at Palestinian Passenger
Dr. Lisa Rosenberg was removed from JFK-bound flight in Florida after accusing woman of being ‘a Palestinian murderer,’ according to internal JetBlue documents, reports say. The doctor also allegedly accused the woman of having explosives in her luggage.
A Jewish New York doctor was thrown off a JetBlue flight bound for JFK after she ranted at a Palestinian passenger, calling the woman a “murderer” and shouting she had explosives in her bag.
Dr. Lisa Rosenberg was escorted off the plane on July 7 in Palm Beach, Fla. At the time, she told reporters she was the victim of anti-Semitism and had been called a “Zionist pig,” according to WPBF-TV, which ran audio of a telephone interview conducted after Rosenberg reached New York, where she has a medical practice in Flushing.
The airline denied her version of events, saying in a statement that Rosenberg’s story “in no way reflects the report that we have.”
But WPBF and an airline security blogger subsequently obtained access to the employees’ reports and ran excerpts from them.
A flight attendant wrote Rosenberg “accused customer 9C of being a Palestinian murderer, and that her people were all murderers and that they murder children,” the station reported on Wednesday.
“She went even further to suggest 9C had explosives in her bag and it would bring the aircraft down.”
Reached by the Daily News, Rosenberg denied she said “anything like that” and asserted that she was the victim in the incident. She also accused a flight attendant of making an “anti-Semitic” remark to her. “As far as I know, the reports are heresay,” she told The News.
She declined to elaborate and refered questions to her attorney.
The altercation erupted after Rosenberg ended a cell phone call in which she praised Israel’s conduct in a military offensive being waged in Gaza.
The Palestinian woman told Rosenberg her comments were offensive, and the New York woman erupted, WPBF reported.
She has turned down subsequent interview requests from the station, WPBF said.
Airline security blogger Steven Frischling also posted excerpts on his flyingwithfish.com website.
Flight attendants informed the captain of Rosenberg’s behavior, who would not sit down or stop yelling, JetBlue reports said, according to the site.
A Conflict Resolution Officer was summoned to the plane to talk to Rosenberg, but the shouting continued and passengers were complaining about the disruption.
The captain and crew decided Rosenberg should be removed from the jetliner because she was interfering with takeoff and violating the airline’s non-discrimination policies, the reports said.
Her initial claims of religious harassment were prominently displayed on Jewish media sites — as were subsequent reports that she was responsible for the incident.
Deborah Hastings
New York News Daily