A prominent anti-Israel barrister has been jailed for six months after she was videoed ranting drunkenly on an Air India flight about how she was “an international criminal lawyer for the f***ing Palestinian people”, and spat in the face of a member of the cabin crew.
Simone Burns from Hove, also known as Simone O’Broin, was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on Thursday, having pleaded guilty to both assault and being drunk on an aircraft at her trial last month at Uxbridge Magistrates Court.
In footage of the incident filmed by a fellow passenger, Burns can be seen remonstrating with a member of the flight crew after being refused a fourth bottle of wine on a flight from Mumbai to London last November.
Irish lady behaves in such an abusive, racist way with @airindiain crew for being refused extra drinks. Very decent AI crew behaviour. Arrested on landing. Wonder if she should have been controlled onboard with handcuffs. @JitiBhargava @Mohan_Rngnathan pic.twitter.com/kSTDmGOEm5
— Tarun Shukla (@shukla_tarun) November 13, 2018
“I’m a leader of the f***ing boycott movement", she shouted at a member of the cabin crew.
“If I say "boycott" - f***ing Air India, done… I'm a f****** barrister. A human rights lawyer, and an international criminal lawyer.”
She also called airline staff “Indian, money grabbing c****," smoked a cigarette in the toilets and spat in the face of a female member of staff who refused to serve her more alcohol.
Even the other passengers are embarrassed. So shameful pic.twitter.com/IttfjDwBiM
— Tarun Shukla (@shukla_tarun) November 13, 2018
She was arrested by the police when the flight landed at Heathrow.
Burns has previously written a paper accusing Israel of genocide over its treatment of the Palestinians, whom she described as "a group struggling for self-determination against a colonial, racist regime”.
As discovered by investigative researcher David Collier, Ms O’Broin had also made Facebook comments about having “Mossad agents and Zionists operatives all over my life… there is yet again a fishy smell of CHABAD LUBAVITCH!!”
She also commented supporting a piece written by antisemite Gilad Atzmon attacking the sentencing of Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz, saying: “I wonder how many successful libel actions there have been for unfounded allegations of antisemitism and all the rest.”
At her hearing last month, a magistrate had told her that she “clearly put the safety of the aircraft in jeopardy by smoking.
“You were disruptive to other passengers who must have found the whole experience quite shocking. The disruption was clearly over a long period of time, the level of racist abuse was prolonged and unwarranted – there’s no excuse for that.”
He also said that her “spitting in the face must have been one of the most awful things that can happen to anybody, given the transmission of diseases".
The magistrates court had referred her case to the High Court after concluding that her offences deserved a more serious sentence than that which they were able to hand down.
