50 Jewish kids removed from flight in Spain amid conflicting accounts of clash

A group of some 50 Jewish summer campers from France was forcibly removed from an airplane at an airport in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday evening after a confrontation with staff, according to reports.

Their supervisor, reported to be a woman aged 21, was forcibly detained by security.

The Kineret Camp claimed the incident was rooted in an antisemitic attitude by staff.

Vueling, the low-cost Spanish airline on whose plane the incident happened, said the youths from Kineret Camp, who were returning to Paris from a trip to Spain, “engaged in highly disruptive behavior and adopted a very confrontational attitude, putting at risk the safe conduct of the flight.”

It said they “mishandled emergency equipment and actively disrupted the mandatory safety demonstration” and ignored “multiple warnings,” leading the crew to summon security.

Some reports said the group sang loudly in Hebrew while aboard the plane. Several reports in Jewish media claimed staff made incendiary statements toward the group, and allegedly called Israel a “terrorist state.” These could not be immediately verified, and their source was unclear.

The woman who was arrested and beaten is the director of the Kinneret summer camp.

Fifty Jewish French children, aged 10 – 15, were singing Hebrew songs on the plane.

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The @vueling airline crew said that Israel is a terrorist state and forced the children off the aircraft; they… https://t.co/V78PEHB58B pic.twitter.com/HizF6SZoaD

— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) July 23, 2025

As of Thursday afternoon, the Foreign Ministry said that most of the group had reached their intended destination, and the remaining passengers departed on a separate flight.

The Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Madrid “maintained continuous contact” with authorities at the airport following the incident, the ministry said in a Hebrew-language statement.

“Israel, the Foreign Ministry, and Israeli missions around the world will continue to act and provide assistance to Israelis and Jews in distress wherever they may be,” the ministry added.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli wrote on X that members of the summer camp, aged 10–15, were indeed singing Hebrew songs on the plane.

“The Vueling airline crew said that Israel is a terrorist state and forced the children off the aircraft; they are now in Valencia, waiting to return to France,” Chikli posted, blaming the incident on antisemitism.

Video from the scene showed security personnel handcuffing a woman pinned to the ground by security agents, apparently the supervisor.

One of the minors on the flight, 17-year-old Samson, told AFP by telephone that the group had taken their seats on the plane calmly.

“One of my friends shouted a word in Hebrew because he was still a bit in holiday-camp mood,” he said, adding: “Perhaps he said it too loudly.”

Flight staff then warned that they would alert police if it happened again, he said. “We immediately stopped making noise,” Samson said.

The Civil Guard said it had removed 44 minors and eight adults from the plane, saying the arrested person “refused to get off the plane and obey the officers” but was later released.

“The officers were not aware of the religion of the disembarked people at any point during the operation,” the Civil Guard said in a statement.

Parents said the teenagers were forced off the plane after one of them had sung a song in Hebrew.

A mother whose 17-year-old son was on the flight told AFP on condition of anonymity that the group was returning home from a two-week summer camp.

She said she “could not see what could have justified” the incident, which affected children as young as 12 and 13. “They were disembarked like dogs,” she said.

Karine Lamy, a woman identifying herself as the mother of one of the kids, told i24NEWS that only one of the children had started singing and that after a warning from the crew, the children calmed down and behaved. However, she alleged, security was called anyway and instructed the group to disembark.

She said security personnel then told everyone to place their mobile phones on the floor so videos they recorded could be deleted. According to Lamy, the counselor then objected, saying they had no right to do so, leading to her forcible detainment.

Spanish Jewish site Enfoque Judio said some of the kids had later boarded other flights but that others still did not have return tickets as of Thursday afternoon. It was not clear whether the counselor had been released.

A video shared later by Enfoque Judio showed members of the group being instructed by a group leader to hide all religious symbols during their detention for fear of complicating matters.

????️ INCIDENTE EN VALENCIA | Instrucciones a los menores antes de tomar un nuevo vuelo: "Todo lo que sea kipá, tzitzit, lo que lleven puesto, nos lo quitamos. Ningún signo religioso visible".
Vídeo: @tony_attal_ https://t.co/L3TjHFfxWf pic.twitter.com/QxONqQGFCX

— Enfoque Judío (@enfoquejudio) July 24, 2025

The Kineret Camp sent parents a message saying that all of the campers would be home by Thursday, and were receiving kosher food from a local Chabad house, Enfoque Judio reported.

“The removal of the children and their luggage from the plane is a purely antisemitic act,” the message said, according to the report. “We are initiating proceedings against the airline, of which we will keep you informed.”

Vueling had a different version of the story.

“The actions of the onboard staff were solely in response to behavior that compromised the integrity of the flight, as well as the safety of the passengers and the operation as a whole,” the airline said in a statement. “This group mishandled emergency equipment and actively disrupted the mandatory safety demonstration, repeatedly ignoring instructions from crew.”

The crew, acting in accordance with the airline’s procedures, requested the intervention of security, who decided to remove the group from the plane, Vueling said.

“Once at the terminal, the group’s behavior continued to be aggressive. Some individuals displayed a violent attitude towards the authorities, which even led to the arrest of one of the group’s members,” Vueling said. “We categorically deny any suggestion that our crew’s decision related to the religion of the passengers involved.”

In a statement following the incident, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE), which represents the Jews of Spain, expressed its concern, noting that it has contacted Vueling to clarify exactly what had happened on the plane.

“The FCJE believes the airline is responsible for providing immediate and transparent explanations for what happened, as well as conducting an internal review to determine whether there was an inadequate protocol,” it said. “Chants and displays of euphoria on airplanes are not an isolated occurrence, and we believe that if these expressions were the cause of the incident, Vueling needs to clarify the matter.”

Antisemitic sentiments have skyrocketed around the world since Hamas launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023. Chikli has singled out Spain as one of the worst offending countries.

The number of antisemitic incidents reported in the country has risen nearly sixfold since 2022, according to a recent report by the Antisemitism Observatory, a joint initiative of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain and the Movement Against Intolerance.

Following the incident, French Parliament member Caroline Yadan called for the case to be investigated.

“If the facts reported… are true, the Spanish airline Vueling will have to answer to justice,” she wrote on X.

“We are going to file a complaint for physical and psychological violence, as well as discrimination on the basis of religion,” Club Kineret’s lawyer Julie Jacob said, adding that those involved were mostly under 15 years old.

Kineret said the police action was brutal and unjustified “and clearly marked by bias.”