Aug 31, 2006 8:13 am US/Eastern
Passenger Asked To Remove Arabic Script T-Shirt
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
An Arab human rights activist says he was prevented from boarding a plane at Kennedy International Airport while wearing a T-shirt that said, "We will not be silent" in English and Arabic.
The incident happened Aug. 12 when Raed Jarrar was preparing to board a JetBlue flight from Kennedy to Oakland, Calif.
Four officials from JetBlue or from a government agency stopped him at the gate and told him he couldn't get on the plane wearing his shirt, Jarrar said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
One of the officials told him, "Going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says 'I'm a robber," he said.
Jenny Dervin, a spokeswoman for JetBlue, acknowledged that the dispute occurred and said the airline was investigating it.
She noted that the incident occurred two days after British authorities announced that they had foiled a plot to blow up jetliners over the Atlantic.
New restrictions banning liquids and gels in carryon baggage went into effect at U.S. airports following the Aug. 10 announcement, but Dervin said there are no specific rules governing apparel. "Each situation is different," she said.
Jarrar, who directs the Iraq project for Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization, said he asked what law he was breaking by wearing the shirt. The officials didn't answer, he said, but suggested that he turn the shirt inside out.
"I refused to take off my T-shirt and put it on inside out because it looks like a punishment for something I have not done," he said.
In the end, the officials gave Jarrar another shirt to put over the offending T-shirt and he put it on rather than miss his flight.
Once on the plane, Jarrar said he was forced to give up the seat he had booked weeks before near the front of the plane and issued a new boarding pass for a seat in the rear.
Dervin said it was unclear whether JetBlue, the federal Transportation Security Administration or the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, told Jarrar to remove his shirt.
Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the TSA, said the agency was investigating to see whether its agents were involved. Port
Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said he was checking on the incident as well.
Jarrar, 28, is half Iraqi and half Palestinian and moved to the United States last year from Jordan, where he was studying.
He said he has filed a complaint with JetBlue and is considering legal action. He would like, at a minimum, for JetBlue to apologize.
"We Will Not Be Silent" is a slogan adopted by opponents of the war in Iraq and other conflicts in the Middle East.
"It's ironic," Jarrar said. "I was silenced by the state."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
