A group of about 50 French Jewish children, aged 10-15, were kicked off of a Vueling flight in Valencia along with their camp director. They were enroute back to France.
The group was singing Hebrew songs onboard the Airbus A320, triggering objections from crew. Vueling staff reportedly called Israel a “terrorist state” and didn’t want Hebrew singing onboard. The camp director, a 21‑year‑old woman, was forcibly removed from the aircraft and “arrested and beaten.”
After he stopped singing, police stormed the plane a few minutes later, ordering the band director and the children to leave the plane, which had not yet taken off… Once they left the plane, the police ordered them to place their cell phones on the ground to check that the arrest had not been filmed, prompting the director to intervene, claiming that what they were doing was illegal.
The police officers then pinned the 21-year-old woman to the ground and handcuffed her before taking her away, while the children aged between 13 and 15 remained with their instructors.
Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli shared video of the incident:
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.
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
Vueling, which is owned by British Airways parent IAG, has not released any official public statement or social post from the airline has been issued. Spanish authorities have made no formal comment beyond acknowledging that police were involved in enforcing airline crew requests.
I can understand objecting to a group singing, playing musical instruments, or nearly anything else on a plane. I can understand politely asking them to stop. Having an issue with the singing because or responding to it by saying that “Israel is a terrorist state” is certainly one way to handle things. Vueling, it seems, decided to globalize the intifada. Meanwhile, Spain expelled Jews in 1492 – but ironically this time wouldn’t let them leave.
Update: Here’s additional video of the group being bused after being kicked off the aircraft.
“We’re not going to give these antisemites the opportunity to kick us off the plane”
A counselor for the Kinneret Club teens who were kicked off a Vuelling flight for singing a Hebrew song explains why they now need to hide their kipot and tzitzit on the plane to avoid any… pic.twitter.com/TQyoylSNYp
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) July 24, 2025
For some light humor in the midst of this horror: @Construction — Was that a ‘Happy Gilmore’ reference (Shooter McGavin)? Like, @Doug gave you the layup there. Nice.
@Mike Hunt @Mantis — I can compartmentalize the separate issues here (the broader history, the October attacks, the ongoing ‘war’).
First, the state of Israel and the Jewish people have a right to exist, and to defend themselves. I find overuse of the g-word and the a-word (trying to avoid auto-moderation, but referring to South Africa) are not appropriate. The student protests in the US and elsewhere have simply gone too far.
Second, the incident on this flight does appear to be a bad handling of a situation that could have been de-escalated without removal (if the crew really felt this was a disruption to the safe operation of the aircraft); however, we need to know more information on that. (To me, it doesn’t seem like a genuine safety issue, but it’s not ‘my call). If the motivation was actual animus and discrimination (anti-semitism), then the airline should be prosecuted and likely compensate those harmed by their overreach (at the very least, refund, EU261, damages, etc.)
Finally, no, I do not think any of it should become ‘left vs. right’ as it relates to domestic US political discourse, but it inevitably bas become that, and I think that’s a mistake (the right has weaponized this against the left, and for those of us in the middle it’s sad to watch). And my earlier point was that those attempts here and anywhere are a mere distraction from what should be tangible decisions on the security within that country (Israel), the wellbeing of all its people, and the humane treatment of passengers on any aircraft. Remember, I care about the better treatment of workers and consumers, generally.
Alright, let’s keep it going!
I didn’t see her being beaten, but I did see her resisting arrest. The bottom line is obvious (though who knows with some posters here?): no singing and the language is not relevant. It’s a group of kids. So, as long as the singing stopped soon after it was ordered stopped, the rest is overreaction.
Regardless of what language they sang in, singing on the plane and refusing to stop when asked by crew is grounds for removal. How annoying
This goes along way to show the creep of lefty extremism in the EU. That is nothing but disgusting
An airline lying again.
It truly is amazing how openly anti-semitic and flat out racist some commenters are these days on aviation blogs
about — KIDS from FRANCE — NOT ISRAEL — singing religious songs and going to camp.
WtF to all you commenters? What is wrong with you? These are kids going to camp from France. WTF is wrong with you? Go comment about PM Netanyahu on the Jerusalem Post website or something.
You people are just messed up in the head to blame these kids or their counselor for what’s happening in Israel and Gaza.
Adolf Hitler would be proud of Spain and IAG.
@Alan — Not happy with the incident, but that’s a ‘bit much,’ eh?
Nothing to say about the children starving in Gaza? Sounds like Gary considers some people more equal than others.
@Connor — Yeah, why does the post about a specific incident on a flight in a blog about aviation, travel, and credit cards not include a deep dive on humanitarian crises around the world… Like, how’s South Sudan going? And did we forget about the earthquake in Myanmar? Are the women in Afghanistan doing any better? Oh, and, there’s still a literal land-war in Europe (Russia’s unjust ‘war of choice’ against Ukraine.) Gary should have mentioned those, too, right?
@condor: Besides for what 1990 is saying, children in Gaza are getting more calories in per person than many countries in the EU.
Please take some of the aid destined for Gaza and send it to Sudan and other countries where children are actually starving.
@Gary can you update this story with the airline’s published statement on what happened? I feel like this is one of the incidents where having both sides of the story would benefit readers.
According the Vueling the group repeatedly ignored instructions to stop singing, tampered with safety equipment, disrupted the safety demonstration and were repeatedly confrontational with the crew.
While not confirmed there are reports from other passengers on the plane that the children were chanting “death to arabs”.
This is not the US where cabin crew/Flight Attendants can just make the decision to remove passengers as they wish for ridiculous reasons. The Captain would have definitely been involved in the decision.
As reported in The Independent (UK) newspaper today. The passengers were disruptive, tampering with emergency equipment and interfered with the safety demonstration.
Response from Vueling:
A Vueling spokesperson said the passengers were removed after the minors repeatedly tampered with the plane’s emergency equipment and interrupted the crew’s safety demonstration.
“A group of passengers engaged in highly disruptive behaviour and adopted a very confrontational attitude, putting at risk the safe conduct of the flight,” Vueling said in a statement.
“We categorically deny any suggestion that our crew’s behaviour related to the religion of the passengers involved.”
A Civil Guard spokesperson said the captain of the plane ordered the removal of the minors from the plane at Valencia’s Manises Airport after they repeatedly ignored the crew’s instructions.
This sounds like a perfect way to treat the “chosen ones”……..meanwhile in Gaza they are starving 2 million humans… …
@Andy & @Duck Ling — You guys conveniently left out this part of those articles: “On Thursday, the Federation for Jewish Communities of Spain expressed concern about the incident. The group said that Vueling needed to provide documentary evidence of what happened on the plane.” (Associated Press) It’s one thing to allege or claim, another to ‘prove.’ Let’s see what happens.
@SAS — Listen, I read the NYTimes, too, and they’ve been nonstop, front page, last two days, all about ‘starving,’ less about Epstein, or anything else going on in the world. So, what’s up with that?
This is a highly biased article, you claim they were beaten, but offered no evidence. Cited nothing to back that claim up.
The same goes for your claim that the crew told them that ‘israel is a terrorist state’
The suggestion that they didn’t simply ask them to stop at first, and immediately escalated to security/police.
You quote only the side accusing the airline of improper, and antisemitic behaviour.
You have not even mentioned how the airline denies these claims and their version of events.
When more information comes out, will you retract or edit this?
1) I see zero comments so far on what I consider by far the worst part of this–the police trying to make sure the arrest wasn’t filmed. I consider that to be something that should end their career.
2) Send the aid to Sudan? Same problem: it doesn’t get there. Gaza doesn’t have an actual shortage of food, they have Hamas manufacturing a shortage of food. Sudan probably actually has a shortage of food but you still can’t solve it by shipping food because it will be intercepted.
3) What were they singing? There are not a lot of non-Jews that speak Hebrew. How many not in the group could even understand them? Remember that just because a word sounds like one you know doesn’t make it have the same meaning. I’m sure everyone on here has seen some of those road signs that have the vulgar word for flatulence–except it actually means “speed”.
@Loren — Well said!
We need a video of what happened on the plane
Well let’s hear it for the 2025 Inquisition, as it were.
The last Spanish rulers who were tolerant of Jews were Muslim.
Loren.
This is NOT the USA. Please do not expect that in other countries whilst you are being arrested it is OK to just get your phone out and start filming police officer or other officials.
I repeat.- this is NOT the USA.
@Andy & @Duck Ling — You guys conveniently left out this part of those articles: “On Thursday, the Federation for Jewish Communities of Spain expressed concern about the incident. The group said that Vueling needed to provide documentary evidence of what happened on the plane.” (Associated Press) It’s one thing to allege or claim, another to ‘prove.’ Let’s see what happens.
That goes both ways. Where is the documentary evidence that the crew alleged that Israel was a “terrorist state” or that the camp leader was “beaten” (which is a HUGE deal!). You can not say on the one hand ‘it is one thing to allege or claim’ yet on the other accept a recount as FACT.
And what documentary evidence do you want from Vueling? CCTV footage? Audio recording? I am sure there are 100-odd unrelated passengers that were onboard that could quite easily clear up the ‘allegation’ of the young group being disruptive and non compliant.
Personally when I travel I am respectful of those around me. I do not play audio on my personal device without headphones let alone sing songs group style. I don’t care whether it is a christian song, a jewish song, an islamic song or someones Metallica song on their device – I do not want to hear it, I expect the crew to intervene and ask them to be quiet and I expect them to abide by this request.
Always crying antisemitism card is wearing thin.
Jewish playing the Jewish card, again. Apparently they were disrupting a flight, and failed to follow crew instructions. Reason enough to be taken off the flight. Enough with the terrorist state, Hebrew song and nonsense. Learn how to behave on a plane.
I am very curious what the song they were singing, because a lot of Israeli “camp songs” are straight up inhuman, calling for the death of Palestinians (particularly the children) and declaring that greater Israel is Jewish land.