France-Spain flight row over Jewish teens escalates

The removal of a French group of Jewish teenagers from a flight in Spain last week has prompted a diplomatic row, after their group leader was handcuffed by police and a Spanish minister called them “Israeli brats”.

French government ministers Aurore Bergé and Benjamin Haddad have given a strongly worded statement condemning Spain’s transport minister Óscar Puente’s remarks and the actions of police.

The teenagers and their counsellor were among the group of 44 children and eight adults who were taken off Vueling flight V8166 from Valencia to Paris on 23 July while on their way home from a summer camp.

Vueling says the French group was removed from the flight because of “disruptive behaviour”.

The airline has said it aims “to provide a rigorous and transparent account of the facts”.

However, accounts of what happened before the incident differ dramatically, and have led to allegations of antisemitism, which have been vehemently rejected by both the airline and Spanish police.

Videos on social media showed police holding the female counsellor down on the ground in a corridor while they handcuffed her.

The two French ministers, who have both since spoken to the woman, said she had been signed off work for 15 days because of “temporary incapacity”.

“No act justifies the disembarkation and the excessive and brutal use of force by the Guardia Civil against the young woman,” said Bergé and Haddad.

Although Óscar Puente later deleted his post describing the teenagers as “Israeli brats”, the French ministers said they strongly condemned his statement for “equating French children who were Jewish with Israeli citizens, as if this in any way justified the treatment they were subjected to”.

“We will never accept the trivialisation of anti-Semitism,” the ministers added.

Police said the captain had ordered the removal of the group from the Vueling plane after they had ignored instructions from the crew.

The airline has given two statements since the events unfolded a week ago.

It alleged that the group had “mishandled emergency equipment and actively disrupted the mandatory safety demonstration, repeatedly ignoring instructions from cabin crew”.

Vueling said that as part of its internal inquiry it had taken witness statements from other passengers who had backed up its account and that of the police.

It accused some of the children of adopting “confrontational behaviour”… such as “attempting to loosen life jackets, tampering with overhead oxygen masks and removing a…