Accusations of Brutal Force by Spanish Police Against Jewish Camp Counselors
A summer camp counselor has alleged that Spanish police used excessive force when removing her and a group of French Jewish teenagers from a plane headed to Paris, according to a statement made by a French government minister on Wednesday.
Auror Berge and Benjamin Haddad met with the counselor on Tuesday. In the previous week, French authorities reached out to the CEO of Vorling, a low-cost Spanish airline, and the Spanish ambassador to France to investigate possible discrimination towards the teenagers based on their faith.
The incident involved 44 minors and eight adult French passengers who were removed from Flight V8166, which was traveling from Valencia to Paris on July 23rd.
However, unnamed ministers noted that the counselor—who was reportedly “shocked”—disputed the situation. She claimed that the crew was hostile from the beginning and that the justification for their removal and the civil security response was inadequate, stating that the children had only briefly sang before stopping when asked to.
“There was no valid reason for disembarking the passengers, nor for the excessive force used by civil security against the women. The young woman was just informed of her work obligations for the next 15 days,” the minister said, emphasizing that her account was corroborated by other passengers aboard.
The Club Kinnelet Association, which organized the summer camp, has yet to respond to requests for direct testimony from those removed from the flight.
A spokesman for Vueling stated that passengers were taken off the plane after minors allegedly tampered with emergency equipment and disrupted crew safety demonstrations. A representative from the Civil Security Force mentioned that the captain of the plane had ordered the group’s removal at Valencia’s Manis airport for disregarding crew instructions several times.
Berge and Haddad also criticized the situation in a statement from Spain’s Minister of Transport. Spanish Minister Oscar Puente deleted a tweet from July 26th where he referred to the minors in a derogatory manner.
“With anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe since the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, we urge Vueling and Spanish authorities to thoroughly investigate and clarify what happened,” Berge and Haddad stated. “We will never accept the normalization of anti-Semitism and will always stand up for citizens affected by this hatred.”
Vueling has denied that the incident had anything to do with the passengers’ religious beliefs.
Some Israeli media outlets reported that the students were Jewish and suggested their removal was motivated by their religion. However, a spokesman for the Civil Security Corps stated that the agents involved were unaware of the group’s religious identity.
