A passenger who flew from Seattle to Tel Aviv found a handwritten note inside her checked luggage reading “F*** Israel.”
Los Angeles native Noa Sabar Dvoskin, 48, who traveled last weekend with her three children on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Los Angeles and then connected to an El Al flight to Tel Aviv, discovered the note inside her suitcase while unpacking on Monday.
“I felt really scared and uneasy,” she told JNS on Thursday.
Dvoskin went through her luggage to make sure nothing had been damaged and then took a picture of the expletive-laden note, which was written in all capital letters.
“I had a feeling of disgust,” she said. “It felt like something filthy.”
Alaska Airlines did not respond to a JNS request for comment by press time.
The Seattle-based carrier has a codeshare agreement with El Al.
Dvoskin, who moved to Israel two years ago and was vacationing in Seattle with her family, said she did not want her children, aged 9 to 16, to see the note.
“I never thought about this kind of thing happening on an airline,” she said.
Dvoskin said she reported the incident to the airline, Los Angeles International Airport, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. embassy in Israel.
“What if the next time the same person puts an explosive in a suitcase when the opportunity arises,” asked the U.S.-based StopAntisemitism NGO.
The incident comes six months after an El Al flight from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv was delayed after ground staff discovered “Free Palestine” stickers on airport equipment, prompting the flight to depart without passengers’ baggage amid security concerns that the luggage had been tampered with.
Law enforcement reviewed security camera footage and identified a third-party contractor employee who was subsequently fired.
