Outrage over Belgrade Airport "Palestine" blunder

NEWS FLASH

Israeli passengers on an Air Serbia flight from Belgrade to Tel Aviv were stunned when an airport staffer announced more than once that travellers “on the flight to Palestine” should head to gate C3, it emerged yesterday. When challenged, a ground staff member compounded the blunder by trying to explain that the flight was “to Tel Aviv, not to Israel", Israeli media reported. “I could not believe my ears", one unidentified Israeli passenger said about the flight which took place last month. “The first time, I thought I hadn’t heard correctly and I asked a few other passengers if the announcement was really made for Palestine. They said I wasn’t mistaken". He added, "I went to the company’s counter and another passenger joined me and we asked that they announce again that the flight is to Israel and not to Palestine”. However, the staff member on duty then told the two Israelis that the flight was to Tel Aviv, “not Israel”. The passenger threatened not to board the flight until an ammended announcement was made three times, and after much discussion in Serbian between the official and others, an announcement was indeed broadcast three times that the flight’s destination was Tel Aviv.

A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, Emmanuel Nachshon, described the incident as “most worrying". "It is totally unacceptable that a flight official with a microphone in her hand could distort reality so much”, he said. Israel’s Ambassador in Serbia, Alona Fisher, to whom the Israeli passenger submitted the complaint, said that Air Serbia’s CEO “reacted with shock” when she told him about the incident, apologised profusely, and assured her that the position taken by the announcer in no way reflected Air Serbia’s views. The following day, Air Serbia contacted the Israeli Embassy to say it had been an airport staffer, rather than an airline staffer, who had made the announcement and that the airline had requested the airport to take steps against her. An Air Serbia spokesperson told "The Times of Israel" the airline was “aware of reports of an incorrect airport announcement being made in Belgrade and have asked the airport to look into the matter”.

For its part, Belgrade Airport today denied reports that its staff were involved in the incident after an internal investigation was conducted. It said there was no evidence of the airport's involvement in such an "unacceptable" oversight.