A group of 50 French students returning from a Jewish summer camp were kicked off a Vueling flight in Spain. The group claims anti-Semitism is to blame, with one crewmember reportedly calling Israel a “terrorist state” once the children began singing. Vueling says the kids were simply being disruptive and disregarding crewmember instructions.
Were 50 Jewish Students Really Removed From A Vueling Flight Just For Singing?
50 students between ages 10 and 15 were traveling from Valencia, Spain (VLC) to Paris (ORY) on Vueling, the Spanish budget carrier owned by IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia.
The children told Spanish media that the crew became hostile after they began singing in Hebrew, with one crewmember reportedly calling Israel a “terrorist state.” The kids were asked to stop singing and did not, so the crew called the police to have them removed from the aircraft.
Here’s a video of the camp director being arrested:
Could this have been anti-Semitism? Of course. Disgustingly, police demanded that the teens hand over their mobile phones so the video above and others like it could be deleted (they declined).
But in fairness, it could have been the singing, which was inappropriate and uncalled for in a metal tube in which folks who just want peace and quiet cannot tune it out. The flight attendants asked the kids to stop and they refused.
But in further fairness, if you respond to the singing by saying, “Israel is a terrorist state,” as has been alleged, then it seems to me the issue was not actually the singing but the singers...
Another passenger, not related to the group or Jewish, defended the teens:
“I was returning from Valencia with my daughter and no one on the plane understood what was happening, because the group got on the plane normally, without shouting – which is rare in teenagers. I insist that they behaved well for teenagers. During the security instructions, they called the police because they mentioned a security problem on the plane… and finally they made the children disembark and took off two and a half hours late for nothing. I mean the kids stayed polite and left the plane calmly.”
Listen to what a counselor later said to the students who were placed on a bus:
I don’t think that was speech staged for the cameras…
I’m wading into political waters here, of course, but perhaps the biggest takeaway beyond this incident is the disappointment at what a double standard Israel is held to, often by smug Europeans. Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza? Definitely not. I can understand why people grieve for the carnage in Gaza (I do too…) or oppose the Netanyahu government, but calling Israel a “terrorist state” when it is the government of neighboring Gaza that continues to use its own people as human shields and brazenly attacked Israel in a stated genocidal mission…what cognitive dissonance.
Vueling Responds, Condemnds Kids
Vueling later issued a statement saying the youth were acting in a “highly combative attitude that was putting the safety of the flight at risk.” It added that the kids “mishandled emergency equipment and were confrontational during the mandatory safety demonstration, ignoring cabin crew safety instructions.”
If that occurred, it becomes harder to blame Vueling for removing the group, even if a flight attendant made the inappropriate comment against Israel.
CONCLUSION
Here, it may be that any group of school children who sang would have been silenced and any group that did not follow crewmember instructions would have been removed. But the Jewish part of the story matters and I think there’s a strong correlation likely. The video of the camp counselor being arrested and Spanish authorities trying to intimidate students not to record is quite sad, no matter how you slice it. Mark this story as developing…if more evidence emerges that the kids were acting unruly, I’d be much more likely to side with Vueling.
Hat Tip: View From The Wing
Plenty of blame to go around here. I’ll defend the Jewish people and Israel until the end BUT when asked to stop singing, you stop.
Doesn’t justify the racist actions of the crew but like we talk about here almost daily, you have to follow crew members instructions.
I believe your conclusion summed it up perfectly. Let’s see what happens next.
@Dave … +1 .
Also agree with @Matthews’ conclusion , except I don’t actually suspect any Jewish correlation . There is much knee-jerk reaction whenever anyone claims discrimination , perhaps because people have been “schooled” in the jargon of “racism” . Schools and the media have pushed the “racist” canard .
There was a famous case in N.Y.C. when some people claimed that 2 red-bearded orthodox drove by inside an automobile during a “race” argument . The judge allowed the two red-bearded suspects io sit in the public area , then the defense attorney brought in a group of red-bearded orthodox to sit around them . The witness was called and he was unable to identify the two suspects . Case dismissed . ==
@Matt thanks for being one of the few bloggers who have updated their story and posted both sides of this – passengers no matter the age/religion mishandling safety equipment and disrupting safety demonstrations is extremely serious.
I’m not defending any of the abuse by authorities or discriminatory language that has been alleged but if the airline’s account is correct here it seems they did the right thing to remove the group.
Had ot been British teenagers singing football chants and refusing to shut up thry no doubt would have been treated the same.
Over reaction to the world’s vuews about the ongoing inhuman massacres of fellow human beings in Gaza is bound to multiply tensions
The group was disruptive. I don’t want a large number of passengers singing in unison.
They should be thankful that they were allowed off the plane instead of their homes bombed as punishment or each kid put in a room for hours of intense individual interrogation.
I am wondering if this was a planned stunt. I doubt the kids started singing without direction. The camp representative didn’t discourage this behavior and was quick to call the removal anti-semitic. The plane is not a venue for singing, they started it and the rest is on their shoulders unless an investigation proves otherwise.
Isreal is a terrorist state because of the settlers in the West Bank.
The Israeli military does not stop the settlers from killing Palestinians.
You said before you do not think the settlements should expand. But you did not say the settlements should be removed. So you need to say they should be removed or you are a terrorist yourself!
I don’t accept your simplistic label, but to be clear, I believe those settlements should be removed…
That is how Palestinans view Isreal and it is not simplistic to them.
But might be simplistic to you who lives in LA LA LAND and has to deal with first world problems everyday.
Did you secretly (or maybe overtly) rejoice when Israelis were slaughtered on 10/7/23?
“The chickens come home to roost”
I did not rejoice
Was awful what happened
I must have made a direct hit on you with my last message. Bingo!
I was just asking. I’ve never heard you condemn it before.
Hard to take you seriously when you can’t even spell “Israel” multiple times. FYI, it’s not “Isreal.”
Do you know how you stop human shields from being killed? You DON’T DROP BOMBS ON THEM. Whether it fits the legal definition of genocide is a red herring. Israel’s doing horrifying awful things in Gaza. That Hamas is horrifyingly awful as well is not an excuse
Change the subject
Anyway keep enjoying your first world problems.
While at the sametime making up options 30,000 feet above self righteous jerks killing people with their government’s backing.
You know how you really keep human shields from being killed, Comrade?
You don’t use them in the first place!
Thank you, Derek.
I really hope Vueling will be slammed with a lawsuit. 4FS we talking about kids singing! Ok the issue might be they did not stop after they been asked bur Are not the FA not trained for handling such situation?
Looks like both sides failed but the overreaction with handcuffing was over the top. One commenter on the vfw site mentioned what would happen when christian song would be sing on Southwest flight. Will they be kicked off?
Imagine the furore! Every nutjob right-wing agitator in the United States would be apoplectic.
That said, it’s mandatory to follow the instructions of the crew. Yeah, the kids were excited, but there’s a time and a place for everything. The hate-speech allegedly uttered by the crew member is a different matter altogether. If that charge can be proven, the individual must be fired.
To me I think that many FAs have a knee-jerk reaction to kick people off planes based on previous bad experiences – and because some but not all – seem to enjoy the power.
Based on what we see of the Camp Director, I can’t imagine if an FA approached and said “I know these kids are kids, but if they don’t show basic decorum and stop singing, we will remove the whole group from the plane for the safety and comfort of the other passengers” that this camp director wouldn’t have resolved it in 3 minutes. But instead, I think there is an anti-Israel/anti-semitic influence here that prevented a reasonable resolution and escalated it too hard and too fast. And if the FA actually said anything about Israel being a terrorist state, the airline has a whole lot more than an apology to be making.
The images on television news of people in Gaza this evening reminded me of only one thing, the pictures of people being liberated from camps across Germany and Poland in 1945. That was an act of genocide and the perpetrators were tried for war crimes and in many cases executed, usually by hanging.
What was good on that score for those perpetrators is surely good now for the perpetrators of war crimes and acts of genocide.
I’d side with the Vueling crew 100%.
From 1945.
The images on television news of people in Germany this evening reminded me of only one thing…that was an act of genocide and the perpetrators [should have been] tried for war crimes and in many cases executed, usually by hanging.
What was good on that score for those perpetrators is surely good now for the perpetrators of war crimes and acts of genocide.
Allied Forces killed at least 500,000 German civilians. Should Churchill and Roosevelt have been tried for war crimes and hanged?
War isn’t pretty.
But to confuse defense with aggression is deliberate foolishness.
Were the kids Israeli or French? If the latter, what difference does it make if Israel is a terrorist state or not?
Here is an update from VTFW
“As a sidenote to the story, there are reports that the pilot who made the decision to kick them off was Iván Chirivella. Twenty five years ago he was a flight instructor at Jones Aviation in Florida, where he taught 9/11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi in September and October 2020. Vueling appears to lend credence to the report.”
Another pax is saying one kid spoke a single word of Hebrew too loud
Seems a terrorist training pilot made the call to remove them
I saw his post…I’m going to wait until tomorrow and then post an update myself…let’s see if anything else comes out today. Haven’t even checked if Dan’s Deals has anything on this.
Israel is absolutely committing genocide (I suppose you could argue that the Palestinians are simply committing suicide by try to get the international aid while being murdered for getting that aid) but these kids are neither Israeli nor Israel. If told to stop singing ( I don’t want hear singing while trapped on a plane either) they should have done so. If they did not it’s appropriate for the airline to make them disembark. The rest is just stupid by the crew and at absolute best has terrible optics and more likely looks like simple antisemitism.
The state of Israel is a global pariah at this point. When I saw huge groups of kids in May who just exited the IDF making out and pounding beers in Laos, my view really changed. These former soldiers had children’s blood on their hands.
If ‘Israel’ were replaced with ‘Russia’ or ‘North Korea’ or ‘Turkmenistan,’ I think this would be a non-story. I’m sorry, but I think now’s a good time to be respectful of those around you if you’re outside of Israel. Nobody has a problem with Jewish people, or even Israelis individually, but maybe lay low on the nationalism. Make people understand your viewpoint by respectful dialogue… Not by disturbing passengers or whatever happened here.
Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza? Definitely.
There are plenty – far too many – smug AMERICANS who also invoke the double standard. I’m sure we remember all those ‘Free Palestine’ camps at US universities.
Linking the Brett Stephens opinion and not Jose Andres and Omer Bertov opinions says more about you than anything i’ve read on this blog.
Since you choose to only sip from the Zionist cup, at least read Haaretz which features well versed columnists such as Nir Hasson and Gideon Levy, who speak more of genocide in a week than the NYT’s spineless editors have mentioned since the Nakba.
One day, we will all have been against this.
I thought to expect more, shame on me.
Pathetic.
Did you support the US carnage in Germany during WWII? if not, why does the analogy not apply?