‘Absolutely Polite’: Passenger Contradicts Airline’s Shifting Excuses for Kicking 50 Jewish Kids Off Flight, ‘They Were Calm, Not Disruptive’
On Wednesday I wrote about a group of 50 Jewish kids being kicked off a flight, with their camp directly violently arrested. At the time the reports were the disruptiveness of the group was that some of them were singing in Hebrew, and they were collectively punished for it.
Vueling staff reportedly called Israel a “terrorist state” and didn’t want Hebrew
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
I added video shortly afterward in an update to the post from the group being told by their remaining leader that they needed to make it home to France, so everyone was to hide all symbols of their Jewishness. They certainly believed that’s why they’d been removed.
“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
Vueling, which is owned by British Airways parent IAG, first said that the group was disruptive during the safety demonstration, and to prove they were bad apples said they continued to be ‘aggressive’ once kicked off the plane, which is why their group leader was arrested.
Vueling statement regarding the passengers disembarked for disruptive behaviour on flight VY8166 pic.twitter.com/WQ2255Ujqy
— Vueling Airlines (@vueling) July 24, 2025
Then the story shifts to a focus on onboard safety equipment.
Update – Vueling statement regarding the passengers disembarked for disruptive behaviour on flight VY8166 pic.twitter.com/BOmkmFpJp4
— Vueling Airlines (@vueling) July 25, 2025
What’s interesting is that we haven’t seen any video of misbehavior of the kids onboard. Here’s the story from one passenger who watched things go down,
I was coming back from Valencia with my daughter and no one on the plane understood what was happening because the group entered the plane normally, without screaming, which is normal for teens. I insist they were carrying themselves well for teenagers. And during the security instructions, they called the police. Because they said there was a security problem on the plane. Finally, they disembarked us. Two and half hours late for nothing. I want to say those kids were polite and left the plane calmly.
There were early reports that the group was singing – and so many were sympathetic with severe penalties for annoying others! – but that may not have been the case. Their version of the story is that one kid spoke Hebrew too loudly and the group of 52 was kicked off.
One kid said a single word in Hebrew — not a song, not a chant, just one word, a little too loud.
That’s all it took for the airline staff to assume they were Israeli and call the police.
How many times have we heard loud passengers on planes? How many times did that lead to… pic.twitter.com/xeyJwNenVr
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) July 24, 2025
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 2000. Vueling appears to lend credence to the report.
However the implication is that he’s a terrorism supporter. (And others note, correctly, that IAG’s largest shareholder is Qatar.) In fact Chirivella expelled Atta and al-Shehhi for misconduct, as confirmed in FBI interviews, by the 9/11 Commission report, and as he shared in his book Innocent Accomplice.
The flag in the cockpit appears to me to come from a different aircraft than the one that flew these passengers. However this story – initially about disruptive singing, and about disrupting safety demonstrations – first in how the story was relayed informally and then in official statements, doesn’t appear to be quite what has been claimed.
Update: Oy.
This is Spain’s Minister of Transportation referring to the FRENCH Jewish kids from the Vueling flight as “Israelis”…!
Despicably, he asks Spanish “patriots” if they will stand with Vueling vs the “Israeli kids.”
H/t @RabbiPoupko https://t.co/a2ORz54YP4
— Tali Goldsheft (@TaliGoldsheft) July 25, 2025
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