French ministers condemn ‘excessive use of force’ after Jewish youths were removed from a flight

A Vueling Airbus A321 approaches for landing in Lisbon at sunrise, while the moon sets in the background, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)

PARIS — A summer camp counsellor has accused Spanish law enforcement officers of using brute force against her during the removal of a group of French Jewish teenagers from a plane bound for Paris from Spain, French government ministers and her lawyer said Wednesday.

Ministers Aurore Bergé and Benjamin Haddad met with the counsellor on Tuesday after French authorities last week contacted the CEO of the Spanish low-cost airline Vueling and the Spanish ambassador to France to determine whether the youngsters had been discriminated against on the basis of their religion.

Forty-four minors and eight adult French passengers were kicked off flight V8166 from Valencia to Paris on July 23, for what Spanish police and the airline described as unruly behavior.

But the ministers said the counsellor, who asked to remain anonymous and is described as “shocked,” disputed that account. They say she described the crew as hostile from the outset, saying a child briefly sang but stopped when asked, and claimed no behaviour warranted the group’s removal or the Civil Guard’s response.

“No action justified the disembarkation or the excessive and brutal use of force by the Civil Guard against the young woman, who has just been notified of 15 days of total incapacity to work,” the ministers said in a statement, adding that her testimony had been corroborated by other passengers on board.

The counsellor’s lawyer, Muriel Ouaknine Melki, told The Associated Press that she was left with bruises on her legs, arms and body after she was brutally handcuffed and held in an arm lock. Ouaknine Melki said her team is collecting evidence before lodging a complaint.

The Club Kineret association, which organized the summer camp, did not immediately answer requests from The Associated Press for direct testimonies from people who were removed from the plane.

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 Civil Guard spokesperson said the plane captain ordered the group’s removal at Valencia’s Manises Airport after they repeatedly ignored crew instructions.

Bergé and Haddad also lashed out at a statement from the Spanish Minister of Transport “equating French children of Jewish faith with Israeli citizens, as if that somehow justified the treatment they received.” Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente has deleted a tweet from July 26 in which he called the minors “Israeli brats.”

“At a time when antisemitic acts have been on the rise across Europe since the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, the ministers call on Vueling and the Spanish authorities to fully investigate and clarify the events,” Bergé and Haddad said. “We will never accept the normalization of antisemitism. We will always stand with our fellow citizens who suffer from antisemitic hatred, and we will never compromise.”

Vueling has denied that the incident was related to the passengers’ religion.

Some Israeli news outlets reported that the students were Jewish and that their removal was religiously motivated, a claim that was repeated by an Israeli minister online. The Civil Guard spokesperson said the agents involved were not aware of the group’s religious affiliation.

Samuel Petrequin, The Associated Press