Spanish Transport Minister describes ejected French Jewish teens as ‘Israeli brats’

Spain’s Minister for Transport has described French Jewish teenagers ejected from a flight in Valencia as “Israeli brats”, potentially further inflaming a highly volatile situation which has caused significant international anger.

Oscar Puente, who has served as the country’s Minister of Transport and Sustainable Motability since 2023, had shared a statement from Vueling which claimed that “the group of teenagers was tampering with passenger safety equipment…attempting to release life jackets, tampering with overhead oxygen masks and removing high pressure oxygen cylinder [sic]”.

In what appears to have been an attempt at sarcastic criticism of right-wing Spanish people, the left-wing politician said: “Will the patriots be with Vueling? Will the law and order lot be with air safety? Will the xenophobes be with the Spanish company? Or will they all be chummy together, backing the Israeli brats?”

The Jewish group has maintained that the cabin crew intervened after they heard some of the campers singing in Hebrew, and that they referred to Israel as a “terrorist state”. They have also stated that when the Guardia Civil – Spanish police – boarded the plane, they were asked what nationality they were. When they said that they were French, an officer police responded that they had heard that some were Israeli.

The group were subsequently removed from the flight and the leader of the camp was arrested in the airport terminal, with video footage causing significant outrage. Group participants alleged that the arrest had come after a refusal to delete video footage which had been taken on the plane.

Spain has been a key European critic of Israeli actions in Gaza. The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has repeatedly accused Israel of “genocide”, called for Eurovision to boycott the country and has strongly criticised the EU for not suspending its trade agreement with Israel. Observers have noted that the current government, led by the Spanish socialist party, is clinging onto power during an extended and wide-ranging corruption scandal, and is almost completely reliant on its fiercely anti-Israel far-left coalition partners to remain in power.

Vueling’s statement also referred to the captain of the flight, Ivan Chirivella, who has worked for the airline since 2006, stating that, “in addition to his role as an airline captain, Ivan Chirivella, like many pilots, also works as an instructor for aviation professionals at an independent flight school. In that capacity, he has trained more than 100 pilots from around the world in flight operations.”

Chirivella trained two of the pilots, Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, who subsequently carried out the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. There is no indication that Chirivella was aware of or in any way sympathised with the ideology of Atta or Al-Shehhi. In his 2003 book, Cómplice inocente, he described the pair as having been aggressive in training, including trying to take control of the training aircraft without permission on multiple occasions.