Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? Or, The Security Guards at Luton Airport Need to Be Read the Riot Act

Whenever I used to land at Heathrow or another of London’s airports, I was always relieved to find that so many of the security guards and customs officials were Sikhs, and not… well, you know. The people whom the Sikhs don’t like. But a recent tale about the mistreatment of an Israeli passenger by security guards suggests that Muslims are now swelling those airport security ranks. More about what happened to that Israeli at Luton Airport can be found here: “London’s Luton Airport Apologizes to Israeli Author, Enhances Staff Training After Discriminatory Incident,” by Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, March 9, 2026:

London’s Luton Airport has apologized to Israeli author Alon Penzel after airport security targeted him with antisemitic comments about Israel before detaining him, The Algemeiner has learned.

Penzel is the author of Testimonies Without Boundaries: Israel: October 7th, 2023, which is an uncensored and verified collection of first-hand testimonies related to the massacre that took place in southern Israel. Penzel is an Israeli citizen, journalist, and former Israeli government spokesperson.

In a formal written note, Luton Airport offered a “sincere and unreserved apology” for an incident that happened at the airport on Nov. 18, 2024, according to UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which helped the author in his formal complaint against the establishment. Luton Airport said it has also implemented “enhanced training” for its staff members “to reinforce our commitment to ensuring that every passenger is treated with fairness, courtesy, and respect.”

“The safety and security of the airport is our highest priority, and we are required to uphold strict safety and security standards at all times. However, we fully acknowledge that your experience fell below the customer service standards we expect and strive to uphold,” the airport wrote. “We also provide our clear and unequivocal assurance to our Jewish and Israeli passengers — and to you personally — that you are always welcome at London Luton Airport. Discrimination of any kind has no place in our organization.”

Penzel welcomed the apology and said, “I hope that what happened to me will lead to greater awareness and sensitivity going forward.”

In November 2024, Penzel was in the United Kingdom to speak about Testimonies Without Boundaries at a House of Lords event. He was at Luton Airport on Nov. 18 and set to board an El Al flight back home to Israel when the incident occurred with airport security. Penzel believes he was discriminated against and detained unfairly by security guards and police because he is Israeli and Jewish.

After checking in and passing through security, Penzel was stopped by an airport security officer because he was carrying a sign promoting his book and wearing a sweatshirt that said, “End Jew Hatred,” according to UKLFI. The sign was too large to fit into his suitcase, so Penzel was carrying it facing his body.

He held the sign turned toward him, so that no one need have seen what was written on it.

Penzel claimed a security officer told him that the sign was “political” before making offensive comments referring to the Oct. 7 massacre in 2023 and the history of Israel. The author explained that the sign was used to promote his book and that he was just trying to carry it back home to Israel. Still, the security personnel accused Penzel of protesting and accused Israel of an “illegal occupation since 1948,” UKLFI shared.

All poor Mr. Penzel wanted to do was to go through security to wait at the gate for boarding. Instead he was given the third-degree by security officers determined to make his life, as an Israeli defending his country with his one-man peripatetic hasbara, most unpleasant, subjecting him to harassment and detaining him for questioning that was unjustified.

Penzel was detained at the departure gate area by “several security guards and policemen,” according to the pro-Israel group of lawyers. His passport was also taken for a period of time, and he was forced to wait in a restricted area while security camera footage from the airport was reviewed.

“I traveled to the United Kingdom to speak about the victims and survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocity,” Penzel said. “To then be stopped, questioned, and detained while wearing a sweatshirt saying ‘End Jew Hatred’ was shocking and upsetting.”

Following the incident, UKLFI was told that the security guard who stopped Penzel is no longer employed by the airport.

Now at least one of his Luton Airport tormentors has been discharged. I trust he will not have been given a glowing letter of reference.

Luton officials in charge of security have now learned that it will have to make sure that its security and customs officials are well-vetted, their social media posts possibly monitored for antisemitic content, and to the query “quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” — “who will guard the guards?” — the answer must be, from the very top of Luton’s ladder, that “of course we will.” The firing of one of the security guards involved in the antisemitic harassment of Alon Penzel was necessary. But what about the other guards who either took part in his harassment, or watched others harassing him and did nothing? How many more of the Luton security staff will be demoted or ideally be discharged?