TEL AVIV, May 6: A pilot for Italian state airline, Alitalia, has been yanked from flights into Israel after announcing to passengers “welcome to Palestine” on landing in Tel Aviv, Israeli media said on Tuesday.

A number of passengers protested, saying the remarks were particularly insensitive given that Israelis were commemorating on Tuesday the loss of soldiers killed in various conflicts since the Zionist state was founded 55 years ago. Alitalia offered its apologies to the Israeli ambassador in Rome, the reports said.

A similar incident occurred in July last year, when one of the pilots on an Air France flight announced that the final destination was “Israel-Palestine”. —AFP