If the Spanish airline denounces “disruptive behaviors”, the summer camp points to “discrimination on the basis of religion”. Paris and Madrid officially reacted.
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Two radically different versions. Wednesday, July 23, 44 adolescents members of a summer camp as well as seven of their guides were landed from a Valencen plane in Valencia (Spain).
The low-cost airline denounces “disruptive behaviors “ having required the intervention of the civil guard (the Spanish gendarmerie), while the organization of the summer camp “Discrimination on the foundation of religion”. Franceinfo tells you in four acts how this controversy has grown, until it causes reactions from the French and Spanish government.
1 A group of adolescents expelled from an airplane from the Vueling company in Spain
It is 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday July 23, at Valencia airport. A group of 44 teenagers minor of Jewish confession and seven guides entered a flight from the Vueling company, bound for Paris. The summer camp has just spent two weeks in Spain and was about to return to France.
Incidents between young people and the crew would then have broken out. Contacted by the on -board staff, the civil guard intervenes. Arriving on the plane, the gendarmes expulsion from young people. While the tone rises, they then handcuffs one of the officials of the holiday colony on the ground, as we can see on a video filmed by an accompanist.
The images go around social networks, before being taken up by personalities such as the Minister of the Jewish diaspora of Israel, Amichai Chikli, who accuses the company “Anti -Semitism”. This is the starting point for the controversy.
2 The company denounces adolescent “disruptive behavior”
The next day, Thursday, July 24, two versions of the incident were opposed. First, that of the company, which denounced in a press release published on X “Disturbing behavior and conflict ” According to her, adopted by adolescents. They would have put in particular “”In danger the smooth running of the flight ” by manipulating “Inappropriately safety equipment and (by interrupting) actively the compulsory demonstration of instructions “.
According to the Spanish Civil Guard incident report, obtained by Franceinfo, the minors caused such “heckling” That the captain had to get out of the cockpit to understand what was going on. As for the instructor arrested, a spokesperson for the gendarmerie justified his tackle on the ground, because it “Refused to get off the plane and obey the agents”.
3 The summer camp accuses Vueling of “discrimination on the basis of religion”
The version of the organizers and members of the summer camp is radically different. They announce, on July 24, their intention to file a complaint against the carrier “For physical, psychological violence and discrimination on the foundation of religion”. “Everything said by Vueling, about the disruptive behavior on board with the manipulation of safety equipment, is false”Ensures the same day with Franceinfo Julie Jacob, lawyer for the Kineret club, the association of the summer camp.
“I have dozens of testimonies of people on board that are not part of the colony that say the opposite (from what Vueling asserts). They describe a calm atmosphere, without incident.”
Julie Jacob, lawyer for the association of the summer campin franceinfo
According to the parents of some children, the group was taken to task by the crew after a teenager sang a song in Hebrew. The children were “quiet” When the civil guard arrived, assured the mother of one of these teenagers, Karine Lamy, on The Israeli channel I24Newsdenouncing “An anti -Semitic act”.
The video instructor would have been “Plated on the ground” AND “handcuffed” after “Opposed to the confiscation of mobile mobile phones by the civil guard”, tells Julie Jacob. “They wanted children to remove any video taken inside the plane.”
4 French and Spanish governments cling
The French government joined the reactions ball on Saturday July 26, when Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister of Foreign Affairs requests accounts on Vueling. “”Explanation elements were requested, in particular to determine whether these compatriots had been discriminated against their confession “, Questions the Quai d’Orsay on Saturday in a press release. The ministry also claims that the CEO of Vueling “He assured him that a rigorous internal investigation was underway and that the conclusions of this investigation would be shared with the French and Spanish authorities “.
The same day, Oscar Puente, Spanish Minister of Transport, deletes a controversial publication on X. There’s criticized the Spanish right, accusing it not to defend the airline for “Team with Israeli kids”.
Words made jump Benjamin Haddad, Minister responsible for Europe and Aurore Bergé, Minister of the Fight against Discrimination. The two members of the French government condemned “firmly”Wednesday July 30, the words of the Spanish Minister of Transport “Assimilating French children of Jewish confession to Israeli citizens, as if that justified any way the treatment to which they were exposed”.
