Scandal in Spain: 52 Jewish children expelled from a flight just for singing in Hebrew

A group of more than 50 young French Jews was expelled from a Vueling airline flight in Valencia, Spain, after allegedly singing in Hebrew.

The company justified the measure by claiming that the teenagers displayed "disruptive behavior" and tampered with "emergency equipment," while community leaders and Israeli authorities denounced the incident as a serious act of antisemitism.

Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, described the event as "one of the most serious antisemitic incidents in recent times".

His statements came after the release of a video showing a young woman—identified by Chikli as an instructor from the Kineret Club, a vacation camp for Jewish families—lying on the floor of a boarding corridor while being handcuffed by Spanish police officers.

The controversy began when the teenagers, aged between 13 and 15, sang songs in Hebrew during boarding.

According to Karine Lamy, mother of one of the participants, the crew asked them to stop under threat of calling the police. Although the young people complied with the order, the instructor was arrested and the group was forced to leave the aircraft.

Several hours later, some of them were still at Valencia airport, waiting to be rebooked on another flight to France.

The airline published a statement on X (formerly Twitter) defending its actions: "The passengers were disembarked due to highly disruptive behavior, including tampering with emergency equipment. The safety of all passengers is our absolute priority. We categorically reject any form of discrimination." Nevertheless, Vueling did not directly address the accusation that the conflict began because of singing in Hebrew.

For Sacha Roytman, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), the company's explanation is insufficient: "It's outrageous that singing in Hebrew by teenagers is grounds for expelling them from a flight, with excessive violence and hostility, simply for being Jewish and Israeli."

Caroline Yadan, a French deputy representing her country's citizens in Israel and other Mediterranean countries, demanded that Vueling be held accountable in court if the passengers' version is confirmed. "What happened is extremely serious," she wrote on her social media.

Some media outlets reported that the instructor was detained after refusing to hand over the young people's mobile phones to the police. If confirmed, this detail could add an element of abuse of authority to the already controversial action.

The incident comes in a worrying context for the Jewish community in Spain and the rest of Europe.