Air traffic controller broadcast ‘Free Palestine' to Israeli planes
Israel's flagship carrier, El Al, said that an air traffic controller at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport went on the radio and shouted the phrase to its pilots moments after take-off on Monday.
The airline said that any deviation from standard procedures during take-off could lead to disaster, and that it has been liaising with Israel's Civil Aviation Authority regarding the 'unprofessional and inappropriate' radio incident.
The French transport minister, Philippe Tabarot, confirmed that the air official who shouted 'Free Palestine' has now been suspended.
He wrote on X: 'Analysis of the recordings proves that the facts are true. The perpetrator has been identified as an air traffic controller. He has been suspended from all duties until further notice. Disciplinary proceedings have been immediately initiated.
'The penalty must be commensurate with the seriousness of the facts.'
The incident comes after the Paris offices of El Al were vandalised last week, smeared with red paint and graffiti reading: 'genocide airline', and 'Free Palestine' in a number of languages.
Mr Tabarot condemned the 'acts of vandalism', adding that 'acts of hatred and anti-Semitism have no place' in France.
Anti-Semitism on the rise
It also marks the latest in a series of incidents involving Jewish and Israeli flight passengers.
Last week it emerged that Jewish passengers received kosher meals with 'Free Palestine' graffiti on the Spanish airline, Iberia.
Last month a group of Jewish children returning to France from a summer camp in Spain were escorted off a Vueling flight to Paris last month after at least one child sang a Hebrew song.
Vueling allegedly removed the director of a Jewish summer camp and approximately 50 children from the flight to Paris. The airline said the group had 'compromised passenger safety'.
The incident prompted Sir Michael Ellis KC, a former attorney general, to say he was 'deeply concerned'.
He called for the UK's Civil Aviation Authority to investigate. He has also written to the Federal Aviation Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, calling for it to intervene as Vueling's parent company is the International Airlines Group, which owns airlines that operate multiple routes via the United States.
Responding to the latest incident in Paris, he said: 'This is an outrageous and extremely dangerous incident. If an air traffic controller is a zealot who cannot control his conduct during flight operations it casts doubt on whether French air routes are safe for anyone to use at the moment.
'This is the latest in an increasing list of frightening anti-Semitic incidents in the aviation industry.
'Dozens of Jewish children removed from a Vueling flight in Spain, kosher food boxes interfered with on other flights, and now this.
'I have written to the UK and American aviation regulators about these incidents because whatever the airline and wherever the incident, all of us are affected by incidents like this.'
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: 'This is just the latest of a series of significant incidents in European aviation relating to Jews, and a disturbing reminder that this kind of hate can manifest even in settings where safety and professionalism should be paramount.
'Aviation relies on trust, discipline, and neutrality, and any abuse of position to single out or intimidate Israeli passengers or crew is unacceptable. We welcome the swift action taken by the French authorities and urge that the disciplinary process be pursued with the utmost seriousness.
'We hope that the French Government takes a similar interest in other incidents in this sector over which it has jurisdiction. Such conduct has no place in any profession, least of all one that holds lives in its hands.'
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