World
More than 50 French-Jewish children removed from Vueling flight after ‘singing in Hebrew’
The airline claimed its staff were responding to the group’s alleged disruptive actions and not any form of religious expression
July 24, 2025 13:28
The airline claimed its staff were responding to the group’s alleged disruptive actions and not any form of religious expression
July 24, 2025 13:28More than 50 French Jewish youths were removed from a Vueling flight in Valencia, Spain yesterday, allegedly for singing in Hebrew.
Footage shared on social media showed police handcuffing a young woman in a boarding tunnel following the incident.
Israel’s diaspora affairs minister, Amichair Chikli, claimed she had been identified as the director of the Kineret Club, a French organisation which runs summer camps for Jewish children.
i24 News reported that the members of the group were aged 13-15. For that age group, Kineret Club arranged a summer camp that ended on Wednesday at Sant Carlès de la Rapita, a coastal resort city situated between Valencia and Barcelona.
A mother of one of the group, Karine Lamy, told i24 that the children sang in Hebrew in the airplane until the flight crew told them to stop and threatened to call the police if they persisted.
The children then reportedly stopped, but the police arrested the instructor and told them to exit the aircraft.
Vueling denied allegations of “any form of discrimination” or that the decision was motivated by “religious expression”, claiming instead that the group had been disrupted, had intefered with safety equipment and had ignored multiple warnings.
Some of the children were still at the airport of Valencia on Wednesday evening, awaiting an alternative flight back to France, i24 reported.
Enfoque Judio, a Spanish-Jewish news site, reported that according to some accounts, the instructor was arrested after she objected to the police’s demand that the students give up their phones.
Other witnesses claimed that staff members made inflammatory comments regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict.
A Vueling spokesperson said: “The safety of our passengers...is, and will always remain, our top priority.
"The crew’s intervention on board was motivated exclusively by behavious that compromised the integrity of the flight, as well as the safety of passengers.
"A group of teenage passengers adopted a highly confrontational attitude, jeapordising the smooth running of the flight.
"The group inappropriately handled safety equipment and actively interrupted the mandatory demonstration of [safety] procedures, repeatedly ignoring the cabin crew’s instructions.
“Despite numerous warnings, the inappropriate behaviour persisted, leading to the immediate activation of security protocols.”
The airline insisted that it’s staff acted “in accordance with Vueling procedures” and claimed that the some of the group “adopted a violent attitude” towards police, leading to an arrest.
"We firmly deny any claim linking our crew’s decision to the religious expression of the affected passengers, which we completely respect,” they went on, adding: This decision was taken solely and exclusively to guarantee the safety of all passengers.
"At Vueling, we categorically reject any form of discrimination, without exception,” the statement concluded.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.