French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has contacted the CEO of Vueling to express his deep concern “about the removal of a group of young French Jews from one of the company’s flights”. He requested more information to “determine whether these individuals had been discriminated against on the basis of their religion”.
Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente has described 50 French Jewish teenagers ejected from a Vueling flight in Valencia as “Israeli children’’ in a post on X published on Friday and later deleted.
In the post, he ironically questioned: “Will the patriots be with Vueling? Will the law and order lot be with air safety? Will the xenophobes be with the Spanish company? Or will they all be chummy together, backing the Israeli brats?”
The French youths returning to Paris after a summer camp, were removed from a flight leaving the Spanish city of Valencia for what Spanish police and the airline on Thursday described as ‘’unruly behavior.’’
Vueling denied reports that the removing of the teenagers was related to the passengers’ religion as it was reported in some Israeli media.
A Civil Guard spokesperson said the agents involved in the removal, whoich happened at the request of the flight caaptain, were not aware of the group’s religious affiliation.
A Vueling spokesperson said the passengers were removed after the minors ‘’repeatedly tampered with the plane’s emergency equipment and interrupted the crew’s safety demonstration.’’
“A group of passengers engaged in highly disruptive behavior and adopted a very confrontational attitude, putting at risk the safe conduct of the flight,” Vueling said in a statement. “We categorically deny any suggestion that our crew’s behavior related to the religion of the passengers involved.”
But Yad Vashem, the world’s leading Holocaust remembrance institution in Jerusalem, clarified that the young people were not Israelis, but “French Jews. Europeans”, adding: “Mr Oscar Puente, confusing your religious identity with a foreign nationality is anti-Semitism”.
The institution stressed that “while every year thousands of Jewish families flee Europe under threat, a public representative is expected to show respect and not encourage hatred”.
The Jewish group tha organized the summer camp maintained that the cabin crew intervened after they heard some of the campers singing in Hebrew, and that they referred to Israel as a “terrorist state”. They have also stated that when the Guardia Civil, Spanish police, boarded the plane, they were asked what nationality they were. When they said that they were French, an officer police responded that they had heard that some were Israeli.
Spain is one of the most anti-Israel country in Europe. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has repeatedly accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza and the country called in Brussels for a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and for an arms embargo to Israel.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has contacted the CEO of Vueling, Carolina Martinoli, to express his deep concern “about the removal of a group of young French Jews from one of the company’s flights”.
It came after the lawyer for the group of teenagers said they were filing a complaint “for physical and psychological violence, as well as discrimination on the basis of religion”.
Barrot also requested more information to “determine whether these individuals had been discriminated against on the basis of their religion”.