Ben Pawlowski
SPAIN’S transport minister has sparked a diplomatic row after slamming a group of French Jewish children kicked off a flight in Valencia as ‘Israeli brats’.
Oscar Puente’s comments have been condemned by French government ministers Aurore Berge and Benjamin Haddad, just days after France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, contacted the CEO of low-cost Spanish airline Vueling to express his ‘deep concern’ at what had happened.
Last Wednesday, a group of 44 children and eight adults were booted off a Vueling flight at Valencia airport destined for Paris.
Videos on social media show officers from Spain’s Guardia Civil pinning a female counsellor down on the ground while applying handcuffs.
READ MORE: Vueling accused of anti-semitism after group of Jewish children are removed from plane in Valencia
The airline justified its decision in a statement posted on X on Friday, accusing the teenagers of tampering with crucial safety equipment, despite being warned not to by cabin crew.
“The actions of the staff on board responded exclusively to behaviour that compromised the integrity of the flight, as well as the safety of passengers and operations as a whole,” the company said.
“The group adopted a highly confrontational attitude, putting flight safety at risk, improperly handling emergency equipment and interrupting mandatory safety demonstrations – repeatedly ignoring the instructions of the cabin crew,” the statement continued.
But accounts of what transpired differ, leading to allegations of anti-Semitism against the Vueling crew and Spanish police.
Israel’s minister for diaspora and combating anti-Semitism, Amichai Chikli, took to social media to describe the mass ejection as ‘one of the most serious recent anti-Semitic incidents’.
Mr Chikli said the children were booted off for ‘singing Hebrew songs on the plane,’ and that the cabin crew had claimed ‘Israel is a terrorist state’.
Vueling and the Guardia Civil strenuously deny the allegations, with some reports on social media saying the children had been chanting: “Death to Arabs.”
Last week, Mr Puente – a key ally of socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez – posted a now-deleted tweet in which the transport minister criticised Spanish conservative politicians for failing to back the airline and instead ‘supporting the Israeli brats’.
The comment has not gone down well with the French government, who have been keen to point out that the children in question were French citizens, not Israelis.
READ MORE: Spain to send 12 tonnes of food into war-torn Gaza as PM Pedro Sanchez slams ‘shameful famine’
“The French government firmly condemns the comments made by the Spanish transport minister equating French children who are Jewish with Israeli citizens, as if this in any way justified the treatment to which they were exposed,” a statement from the two government ministers read.
“We will never accept the trivialisation of anti-Semitism,” the minister for European Affairs and minister for the Fight against Discrimination added.
The Spanish transport minister is no stranger to getting into hot water with foreign governments.
Last year, Mr Puente came under fire after alleging that Argentina’s president Javier Milei had taken drugs during his 2023 presidential campaign.
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