BDS promoter sentenced to 6 months in prison for racist rant on flight

Simone O’Broin was filmed on the flight last November threatening to organize a boycott against Air India unless flight attendants served her more wine.

An Air India Airbus A320neo plane takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS/REGIS DUVIGNAU)
An Air India Airbus A320neo plane takes off in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, December 13, 2017.
(photo credit: REUTERS/REGIS DUVIGNAU)

(JTA) — A British activist promoting boycotts against Israel was sentenced to six months in jail for her drunken racist tirade on an Air India flight.

Simone O’Broin was filmed on the flight last November threatening to organize a boycott against Air India unless flight attendants served her more wine on the flight, that ended with her arrest.

She pleaded guilty to assault and being drunk on an aircraft at her trial last month at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported.

O’Broin, who worked as a head researcher for the anti-Israel Badil organization as late as 2011, was filmed by fellow passengers telling flight attendants that she is a “leader of the f***ing boycott movement,” clapping in the air in front of a crew member. She added: “If I say boycott f***ing Air India, done. Do you understand me? You can’t give me a wee bottle of wine?”

Earlier in her rant O’Broin, who co-authored a research paper with former U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Falk on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said: “Do you treat business class passengers like that? Who are international criminal lawyers for the Palestinian people?”

“I work for all you f***ing people. … ‘The f***ing Rohingyas, the f***ing people of all Asia, for you, I’m an international criminal lawyer. Don’t get any money for it by the way. But you won’t give me a f***ing glass of wine, is that correct?” She also called a female crew member She then called a female crew member an “Indian f***ing money grabbing bastard.”