ROME- ITA Airways (AZ) is facing fresh accusations of antisemitism after a business class passenger said an advance kosher meal order marked the family as Jewish and prompted the crew to withhold normal service. The carrier, which is based at Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO), has not commented publicly on the claim.
The passenger says the crew declined to serve food, drinks, or even bottled water across a 14-hour flight. When the traveler asked for a napkin for a three-year-old child, a flight attendant allegedly brought toilet paper from the lavatory instead.
What The Passenger Described On Board
The account was shared on social media and first reported by View from the Wing. According to that report, the passenger says ordering a kosher meal identified his family as Jewish, after which the crew denied them normal service and even bottled water for the full flight.
The passenger states that the crew justified the refusal by claiming items such as water were not kosher. When the family requested a napkin for the young child, a crew member reportedly tore off toilet paper from the lavatory and handed it over while looking away.
The claim remains unverified, and ITA Airways has not issued a response. The carrier lists kosher meals among its pre-order religious meal options and describes a KSML as food prepared and served in line with Jewish religious guidelines.
Why Bottled Water And Napkins Stay Within Kosher Rules
The stated dietary reasoning does not hold up under basic scrutiny. Plain bottled water with no additives is kosher, so refusing it serves no dietary purpose.
A standard paper napkin also does not make a sealed, certified kosher meal non-kosher. In other words, neither item conflicts with kosher observance, which undercuts the explanation the crew reportedly gave.
Possible Explanations For The Crew’s Conduct
Viewed in the most charitable light, the episode could reflect badly misunderstood kosher meal procedures.
Some crews wrongly believe that nothing outside a sealed catered meal may be served, including water. That reading points to poor training rather than intent, though the toilet paper detail sits awkwardly against it.
A second possibility is an individual service breakdown. Hostile onboard service sometimes traces to a single crew member dealing with an undisclosed personal or medical issue, rather than to religious bias. Without an airline statement or an investigation, the cause cannot be confirmed either way.
Earlier Complaints Against The Airline
This is not the first antisemitism allegation tied to the Italian carrier. In September 2023, a rabbi shared an account of an ITA flight in which staff allegedly mocked Hasidic Jewish passengers.
The account claimed staff mocked travelers’ peyot as “golden curls” and made “where are the horns?” jokes, and that crew reacted badly to passenger prayers. That report, like the current one, was based on a passenger and witness account rather than an airline finding.
Antisemitism Sentiment In Italy
The complaints arrive against a backdrop of hardening public attitudes. A survey by the pollster SWG, conducted on September 24 to 26 among a national sample of 800 adults, found that around 15% of Italians consider physical attacks on Jewish people “entirely or fairly justifiable”.
The same poll found that some 18% believe antisemitic graffiti on walls and other public spaces is legitimate, and that roughly a fifth of respondents said it was reasonable to attack professors who expressed pro-Israeli positions or for businesses to reject Israeli customers.
For balance, the poll also showed that 85% of respondents believe attacking Jews is “not very or not at all justifiable”. Reuters reported the findings as protests against Israel’s Gaza offensive continued across the country.
Lufthansa’s Record Discrimination Penalty
Discrimination complaints in aviation have already drawn regulatory action elsewhere. In May 2022, Lufthansa (LH) prohibited 128 Jewish passengers from boarding a connecting flight from Frankfurt (FRA) to Budapest (BUD) after some passengers on the inbound New York (JFK) leg were accused of ignoring crew instructions on mask rules.
Many of the affected passengers did not know one another or travel together, yet the airline treated them as a single group.
In October 2024, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a $4 million penalty against Lufthansa for the incident, which the department said was the largest it had ever issued against an airline for civil rights violations.
Under the settlement, half of the amount was payable within 30 days, while the remaining $2 million was credited for compensation already provided to passengers, and the airline was ordered to stop similar practices.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said no one should face discrimination when they travel.
Lufthansa denied the allegations but agreed to the arrangement, arguing that its response was driven by mask compliance rather than bias, a defense the DOT rejected after finding the airline made no effort to identify the specific individuals responsible.
Stay tuned with us. Further, follow us on social media for the latest updates.
Join us on Telegram Group for the Latest Aviation Updates. Subsequently, follow us on Google News
