Back in August of this year (2025) a cacophony of histrionic screeching was heard around the world about how at least one jew named Salvador Auday was served a specialist pre-packed kosher meal that had ‘FP’ written in the same pen on the label.
The ‘Combat Antisemitism Movement’ shrieked that:
‘A Jewish passenger flying from Buenos Aires to Madrid on Iberia Airlines on Monday was shocked to discover the phrase “Free Palestine” handwritten on the packaging of his kosher meal, a targeted political message scrawled across a religious food order.
The incident, which occurred on flight IB102, was reported by Salvador Auday, who also noted that several other unopened kosher meals bore the initials “FP,” written in the same pen. The flight’s final destination was reportedly Israel.
Auday promptly alerted the flight crew. “I reported the incident to the head flight attendant, who took down the complaint, took photos, etc. They tried to apologize in every possible way,” he told Vis á Vis, an Argentinian Jewish newspaper.
While Auday believes the message did not come from the crew, he raised concerns that it may have been written by an employee of the airline’s food supplier. “Apparently, it wasn’t any of the crew members, so if it came from outside, I’d imagine that Iberia will conduct an internal investigation of its suppliers and procedures,” he said. “That’s precisely why I reported it, so that it doesn’t get forgotten.”
The incident was also reported to DAIA (Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas), the central representative organization of Argentina’s Jewish community. In a public statement, DAIA condemned the labeling as a discriminatory act and said it had contacted Iberia’s leadership to demand answers and swift corrective measures.
“We condemn this discriminatory act and have contacted the airline’s authorities to demand explanations and immediate action,” DAIA stated.
Since the October 7th Hamas-led massacre in Israel, the phrase “Free Palestine” has increasingly been weaponized as a threatening rallying cry against Jewish communities.
As of publication, neither Iberia Airlines nor its parent company, International Airlines Group, has issued a public statement addressing the incident. It also remains unclear whether the airline has launched an investigation into its catering processes or staff conduct.’ (1)
Now clearly this was never the fault the airline no matter how much jews want to shriek since this was a pre-packaged kosher meal from a kosher certified – and likely jewish owned and operated – provider. It is how the initials ‘FP’ got on the label, but they could have occurred at any time, and the least likely place would be among Iberia Airlines’ air and cabin crew given the constraints of the job and how difficult it would be do so without being noticed.
It is also worth pointing out that Iberia Airline’s pilot immediately came up to the passengers affected and profusely apologised on behalf of the airline, which was the right thing to do in terms of both customer service and a company. This further suggests that all this had nothing to do with the airline itself and more likely to either do with provider of the kosher meals and/or the company that transported/distributed them to the airline.
I judge that Auday is likely not the culprit because to do so he’d have had to scribble on several such meals, and it is difficult to see how he would have achieved this and even harder to see how he would have done so undetected by the cabin crew.
This summary is supported by the commentary on the incident at ‘Euractiv’ which states that:
‘“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,” the statement said.
The airline said it was conducting an internal investigation and working with its catering providers to determine how the labels were added.
Iberia also said it “categorically rejects any form of discrimination, incitement to hatred, or behaviour that undermines the dignity of individuals”.’ (2)
In essence then it is clear this incident did not happen because of Iberia Airlines, and they did everything right in reacting to it but also that it occurred well outside of their control and the issue lies with the kosher food provider and/or distributor.
However, it must also be noted that despite jews shrieking about how this an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ it is clearly nothing of the sort and rather an – albeit unconventional - act of political protest against Israeli actions in Gaza that appears to have targeted the flight because its end stop for that flight run was to be Israel.
So, no this wasn’t an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ in the slightest.
References
(1) https://combatantisemitism.org/cam-news/jewish-passenger-served-kosher-meal-labeled-free-palestine-on-iberia-airlines-flight/
(2) https://www.euractiv.com/news/spanish-airline-probes-free-palestine-message-on-kosher-meals/