Airline serves kosher meals labeled ‘Free Palestine’

The kosher meal incident closely follows the controversy around a flight by Vueling, a Spanish low-cost airline, in which 44 French-Jewish teenagers and eight adults were taken off a flight allegedly because they had sung in Hebrew.

By Canaan Lindor, JNS

Jewish passengers aboard a flight from Buenos Aires to Madrid encountered the phrase “Free Palestine” scribbled on their kosher meals on Tuesday, an Argentine Jewish group said.

DAIA, the umbrella group of Jewish communities in Argentina, wrote on X that one Jewish passenger aboard flight IB0102, Salvador Auday, received the full phrase written in black ink on the label of his kosher meal, whereas others had only the initials, “FP” written on it.

“We condemn this discriminatory act and have contacted the airline’s authorities to demand explanations and immediate actions,” wrote DAIA, which also called the case a “serious antisemitic incident.”



In a statement, Iberia confirmed that some passengers on the flight had reported “handwritten pro-Palestinian messages” on their meal packaging, the AFP news agency reported. Iberia said it was looking into the circumstances that led to this.

“The Iberia crew documented the incident and took action to assist those affected. The captain personally approached them to apologise on behalf of the airline,” AFP quoted the statement as saying.

The kosher meal incident closely follows the controversy around a flight by Vueling, a Spanish low-cost airline, in which 44 French-Jewish teenagers and eight adults were taken off a flight from Valencia to Paris, allegedly because they had sung in Hebrew.

The airline claimed the teenagers were being disruptive, but witnesses disputed this. An instructor of the teenagers, who were returning from a Jewish summer camp experience, was handcuffed and arrested on the boarding bridge.

While she and others said that the real reason for the disembarkation was antisemitism, Vueling denied this.

Spain’s government is leading one of the most virulently anti-Israel policies within the European Union. Its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, in May called Israel a “genocidal state” and his country has imposed a blanket arms embargo on the Jewish state.

In recent weeks, several cases have been reported in which Israelis were harassed, intimidated and even assaulted in Spain.

On July 8, Israeli tourists were chased out of a restaurant in the Spanish city of Vigo. Also in July, a group of Israelis said they had been followed and intimidated outside their hotel near Barcelona.

A group of men had stalked the three Israeli tourists, who said they were threatened several times during their vacation until, at a certain encounter, the perpetrators, armed with sticks, chased the Israelis on the street in Lloret de Mar, the Israelis said.

The tourists made it back to their hotel safely, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.

Earlier in July, Spain’s Observatory against Antisemitism—an entity co-founded by the country’s Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE)—published its annual report for 2024, in which it documented 193 antisemitic incidents—a record tally that constitutes a 321% increase over 2023 and an increase of 567% over 2022.

Most of these acts documented were linked to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the report said.