Spanish low-cost airline, Vueling, has strongly refuted claims of antisemitism after it had a group of 50 Jewish French teenagers returning home from a summer camp in Valencia, back to Paris Orly on July 23, booted from a flight by the Guardia Civil – a military national police force.
The claim of antisemitism is linked to the fact that the children and their adult counselors were kicked off the flight after they started to sing in unison in Hebrew. There are also reports that a flight attendant was overheard describing Israel as a “terrorist state.”
Once they had been removed from the plane by the Guardia Civil, the police officers allegedly demanded that the children delete any photos or videos of the incident from their mobile phones.
When one of the group’s leaders intervened, she ended up being arrested.
Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli posted a video of the arrest on his official account on X, showing the female counsellor being held chest down on the floor of the airbridge.
Chikli claimed the woman was “beaten” by the police and that the incident was one of the “most serious” examples of antisemitism seen by his office in recent times.
He pinned the blame on rising antisemitism on an “echo of lies” spread by the Doha-based news organization Al Jazeera, as well as Haaretz, which is Israel’s longest-running newspaper, which has been highly critical of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and its approach to the war in Gaza.
Vueling, however, has completely rejected the claims of antisemitism, saying the group of children aged between 10 and 15 years old had “compromised the integrity of the flight, as well as the safety of the passengers and the operation as a whole.”
In a lengthy statement posted on X on Thursday morning, Vueling explained that “a group of passengers engaged in highly disruptive behaviour and adopted a very confrontational attitude, putting at risk the safe conduct of the flight.”
“This group mishandled emergency equipment and actively disrupted the mandatory safety demonstration, repeatedly ignoring instructions from cabin crew,” the statement continued.
“Despite multiple warnings, this inappropriate behaviour persisted, which forced the crew to activate established security protocols. The crew, acting in accordance with Vueling procedures, requested the intervention of the Guardia Civil who, after assessing the situation, decided to disembark the group to prioritise the safety of the rest of the passengers.”
A spokesperson added that after being deplaned, “the group’s behaviour continued to be aggressive” and some members of the group “displayed a violent attitude towards the authorities.”
The statement added: “We categorically deny any suggestion that our crew’s decision related to the religion of the passengers involved. This decision was taken solely to ensure the safety of all passengers.”
“At Vueling, we categorically reject any form of discrimination without exception.”
Vueling is part of the Madrid-based International Airlines Group (IAG), which also owns Spanish flag carrier Iberia, as well as British Airways and Aer Lingus.
On Thursday night, Chikli reposted a post on X that seemingly linked IAG’s largest shareholder, Qatar Airways, with Vueling’s decision to have the group of Jewish children removed from the flight.
“No wonder 50 Jews were thrown off the plane,” California-based Rabbi Pini Dunner wrote. “Qatar is the main source of world antisemitism. They must be stopped!”
Club Kineret, which organized the trip, has hit back at Vueling, saying in a post on Instagram that the 44 children and seven adults were “respectful of the rules and of the personnel. No incident, no threat, no inappropriate behavior was reported.”
“On the contrary, several independent passengers on the flight wrote statements confirming that the children did not represent any threat to public safety or flight security.”
One passenger who was sitting a few rows in front of he group spoke to the French newspaper Le Parisien and said he didn’t hear any noise from the group.
“No one really understood what was happening,” the passenger said. “I expected to see someone drunk standing up, but no. Nothing.”
In 2022, German flag carrier Lufthansa reportedly agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of unrelated passengers who were denied boarding on a connecting flight in Frankfurt because they looked Jewish.
During the first flight from New York’s JFK airport, several people allegedly became disruptive and refused to follow crew instructions.
Rather than identifying the specific culprits, however, Lufthansa barred anyone with Jewish names from boarding a connecting flight to Budapest. In total, 128 people were denied boarding.
Late last year, the U.S. Department of Transportation fined Lufthansa an additional $4 million over the incident.
