London Luton Airport will introduce “enhanced staff training” to ensure staff treat all passengers — including Jewish and Israeli travelers — with “professionalism, equality and respect,” after an Israeli author complained he was subjected to antisemitic discrimination.
The airport, one of the four major airports serving London, also issued an apology on February 27 to the passenger, Alon Penzel, the author of “Testimonies Without Boundaries: Israel: October 7th, 2023,” a book documenting the horrors of the Hamas massacre in raw, first-person testimonies.
In November 2024, Penzel traveled to the United Kingdom to speak about his book at the House of Lords in the British Parliament. He had already passed Luton’s security checks for his return flight to Tel Aviv on November 18 when he was stopped by a security officer.
Penzel was carrying a placard promoting his book and wearing a sweatshirt bearing the words “End Jew Hatred.” The placard was too large to fit in his suitcase, so he carried it facing his body so it would be difficult to read, he said.
“But the officer saw the name of my book on the placard and started accusing me,” Penzel told The Times of Israel. According to Penzel, the officer said the October 7 attack was “only one incident since the illegal occupation began” and warned that the sign could be “considered offensive to passengers in the airport.”
The situation escalated when the staff member called other airport security and police officers, who detained Penzel, took his placard and passport, and questioned him aggressively. He was eventually released with no apology, he said.
“I very quickly realized that this was something antisemitic, not about security or procedure,” Penzel said. “This was an antisemitic employee who decided to detain me.”
The experience left him feeling abused, intimidated and targeted, particularly in the context of rising antisemitism in the UK following the October 7 Hamas terror attack in Israel, he said. Some 3,700 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the United Kingdom in 2025, the second-highest level on record, according to a report released last month by the Community Security Trust.
Following the incident, Penzel said he contacted members of the press and initiated legal proceedings against the airport.
Last summer, another Jewish passenger complained that his family was harassed by Luton officials in a separate incident.
In February, the airport sent Penzel a letter of apology, saying that, while it works to maintain strict safety and security standards, “We fully acknowledge that your experience fell below the customer experience standards we expect and strive to uphold.”
“Following your complaint, we introduced enhanced training for our staff, which is intended to reinforce our firm commitment to ensuring that every passenger is always treated with fairness, courtesy, and respect,” the letter continued. “We would also like to provide our clear and unequivocal assurance to our Jewish and Israeli passengers, and to you personally, that you are welcome at London Luton Airport.”
Penzel accepted the apology.
“It was really important for me that they made an assurance that the training is not only about safety protocols for all passengers, but also specifically for Jewish and Israeli passengers,” he said.
The airport also said that the security guard who had originally stopped Penzel no longer works at the airport, according to UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), an organization that was involved in the case.
“Our client was subjected to a prolonged and unjustified detention in circumstances that were deeply distressing and publicly humiliating,” said Daniel Berke of 3D Solicitors, who represented Penzel through UKLFI. “The apology issued by London Luton Airport is an important acknowledgment that the standards expected of airport security staff were not met on this occasion. We hope the enhanced training measures will prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.”
