sábado, 26 de julho de 2025
Expulsion des enfants français de confession juive du vol Vueling : "Ils étaient très calmes"/ Spanish airline denies allegations of antisemitism after removing French Jewish group from flight
Spanish
airline denies allegations of antisemitism after removing French Jewish group
from flight
Vueling
says group was confrontational, put safety of flight at risk
Burak
Bir |
24.07.2025 -
Update : 24.07.2025
The Spanish
airline Vueling "categorically denied" allegations of antisemitism on
Thursday after removing a group of French students and a teacher from one of
its flights.
Around 50
Jewish children and their 21-year-old summer camp director were removed from a
flight from Valencia to Paris on Wednesday, Israeli media reported.
Vueling said
in a statement that the teenage passengers displayed “highly disruptive
behavior, putting the safe conduct of the flight at risk.”
The airline
said the group tampered with emergency equipment and disrupted the mandatory
safety demonstration, repeatedly ignoring cabin crew instructions.
"Despite
several warnings, the inappropriate conduct persisted, which forced the
immediate activation of established safety protocols," the airline said,
adding that the crew then, acting with "complete professionalism and in
accordance with Vueling procedures," requested the intervention of the
Spanish police.
Security
forces later removed the group from the aircraft "to prioritize the safety
of the other passengers.”
Once at the
terminal, some members of the group "remained aggressive," with
certain individuals displaying "violent behavior" toward authorities,
leading to one arrest, Vueling added.
Media
reports and social media posts claimed the group was removed after Jewish
students aged 10 to 15 were heard singing songs in Hebrew on the plane.
Israel's
Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli echoed
these reports, alleging the camp director was arrested in a "serious"
antisemitic incident.
“The Vueling
airline crew said that Israel is a terrorist state,” he claimed, suggesting the
incident was triggered by “Hamas’s campaign of lies.”
"We
categorically deny any claims linking the crew’s decision to the religious
expression of the passengers involved, which we fully respect," said the
airline.“ At Vueling, we categorically reject any form of discrimination
without exception."