jetBlue is the Latest "Anti-Semitic" Company...?
No, wait— in fact, jetBlue might be the first company in my memory that appears to be “vice-signalling” against poor, helpless Israel.
Both media stories below dance around this issue, but never outright level the accusation against the airline.
Apparently, this is what upset a passenger from Israel flying jetBlue in the US:
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Source.
[ COMMENTARY CONTINUES BELOW THE TWO ARTICLES. ]
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The offending (?) airline might look totally blue, but isn’t feeling too blue about this, it seems…
STORIES:
JetBlue’s Seat Back Map Now Calls Much Of Israel “Palestinian Territories”
by Gary Leff on September 4, 2024
JetBlue’s seat back entertainment map now displays the Palestinian territory, and it does so in “significantly larger text” than Israel “to the point where it is overlaid on the entire state of Israel.”
While the airline has stopped allowing flight attendants to wear personal, unapproved pins like Palestinian flag pins after the airline had a passenger removed by police for questioning one such pin, their moving map appears to have struck a middleground between recognizing Palestine (which the U.S. does not) and recognizing only Palestine (‘from the river to the sea’).
In fact, “according to the map, Israel’s northern border does not include the Golan Heights” or “a division of the West Bank” instead appearing to call much of what is internationally acknowledged to be Israel ‘Palestine’.
While it’s unclear when the change was made, JetBlue acknowledges it, telling me,
The map app on seatback screens allows customers to see where their aircraft is flying at any given time. The digital maps are licensed from a third-party provider to JetBlue and other airlines around the world. We have reached out to the service provider to understand how their maps are sourced.
While blaming a third party provider, they don’t express concern over that provider’s choices in their statement. Nor did they commit to addressing it.
I’ve written in the past about an airline announcing their destination as ‘Palestine’ and removing Israel from their inflight map. Swiss even had a policy of turning off its inflight map 30 minutes prior to arrival in order to avoid displaying Israel to passengers flying to Israel.
JetBlue is headquartered in New York, home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. On the other hand this is an increasingly large customer base…
[ See Tweet on original page ]
…and on the other side of the Atlantic at JetBlue destinations like Amsterdam as well.
Update: 9/5/24 JetBlue adds an additional statement:
The map app on seatback screens is an interactive map that allows customers to see where their aircraft is flying at any given time.
The map app is provided to us by a third-party company, which they license from a specialty technology company. (https://www.geofusion.com)
A number of other airlines around the world use the same map technology on their seatback screens.
We don’t believe the provider has made updates or changes to the map recently. The concern reported about the font size seems to be related to when a user zooms into the map on an area that is small in size. When zooming into smaller countries and cities, the font labels increase disproportionately to the land. This is how the technology works on all areas of the globe and it does not appear to be an intentional choice or statement about Israel.
The map app is primarily meant to see where your aircraft is flying, and JetBlue does not fly to Israel or the Middle East. To that end, we have not previously reviewed the map app’s functionality in that region. We’ve reached out to our service provider to get more information about the map’s functionality and accuracy.
AS REPORTED in the JERUSALEM POST:
JetBlue Airways changes Israel's borders and name to 'Palestinian Territories'
JetBlue's in-flight map sparks outrage as Golan Heights is removed from Israel's borders, covering the name of the country with 'Palestinian Territories.'
SEPTEMBER 4, 2024 06:12
Updated: SEPTEMBER 4, 2024 19:45
American airline JetBlue Airways has updated their in-flight map to show the words "Palestinian Territory" in significantly larger text than the word "Israel," to the point where it is overlaid on the entire state of Israel, N12 reported Tuesday evening.
Hodaya Knafo, an Israeli woman studying in the United States, told N12 that she was on a domestic flight from Miami to San Diego when she tried to show another passenger where Israel was located on her seat’s personal screen. "The label was prominently displayed in a way that didn't seem innocent,” she said, and additionally, the borders were incorrect."
According to the map, Israel’s northern border does not include the Golan Heights.
“It happens often that the word Israel creates a dialogue,” Knafo said, “I wanted to show him where Israel is located on the map on the plane's screens. When I saw the map, I was shocked."
Knafo told N12 that she had intended to show the man next to her how small Israel is, especially compared to the interest it generates.
Along with the removal of the Golan Heights, "They don't show a division of the West Bank, so it doesn't seem like that's what they meant by the 'Palestinian Territory' label.” Knafo continued, “Also, I think this is new because I don't remember seeing something like this on previous flights."
In light of the global rise in antisemitism, affecting Israeli students, Jews, and even supporters of Israel on campuses across America, Knafo emphasized to N12 that the change in JetBlue's display of Israel and the Golan Heights has deeply upset her, "It's really, quite annoying and frustrating to see this after the year we've been through.” She said, “I'm returning to my studies in a month, and I already know that I'm returning to a battlefield."
→ OR: is this story just one more “much ado about nothing” again, a case of finding offense where there isn’t any?
(That sport comprises the main activity of the Anti-Defamation League—its raison d'être, actually.)
Note jetBlue’s unflustered and casual response to the complaint (the “Statement Update” in the first article above).
The View from the Wing writer notes this:
While blaming a third party provider, they don’t express concern over that provider’s choices in their statement. Nor did they commit to addressing it.)
jetBlue’s tone just seems insufficiently apologetic and groveling, then. It’s as if they don’t care about possibly offending … someone.
Does this blasé attitude merit an “anti-semitic” (or at least, an “anti-Israel”) label from the “offendees”?
Will jetBlue be allowed to continue flying with this “botched map” available to view in the seatbacks from here on out? Should all sympathizers boycott the airline now?
Or maybe, who knows? They might just decide to issue a “proper apology” for the “grievous error” in their maps soon.
Will a chapter 2 follow in this airline map kerfuffle?
(But it seems that the world is starting to grow weary of such trivial grousing, while hundreds of thousands of innocent women, children and men have already been murdered by direct and indirect means in the Gaza strip, with the ramped-up killings now spreading to the West Bank in recent days.)