British low-cost airline carrier EasyJet has apologized after an incident involving a flight from Barcelona to Paris carrying around 180 French Jewish passengers who spent Pesach in Spain, JPUpdates news website reported.
Several families, including elderly men, pregnant women and babies, claimed that they were treated unfairly by EasyJet because of their religion with one passengeer – a Holocaust survivor- saying that the police’s treatment of them was similar to the behavior of Nazi Germany’s SS during World War II.
After waiting for more than two hours in plane waiting for take off, the passengers, many of whom were wearing the kippah, were removed by Spanish armed police officers from their flight on the way home to the French capital after Passover.
They didn’t understand the explanations from the flight attendant who was only speaking Spanish. She was asked to talk in French but declined by saying that she can’t speak a word of English or French. One 15 year-old boy, not understanding, made signs with his hand like asking, ‘What are you saying ?’ When this flight attendant saw the boy making with the hands, the flight crew called the Spanish Guardia Civil police,” one passenger told JPUpdates.
Another passenger, named Franck Ben, recounted the ordeal in a post on his Facebook page in French, saying that he and other passengers felt as if they were being treated as terrorists.
Ben said that police wanted to detain the 15-year-old who made the hand gestures but his mother told police officers that if he were to be taken, then she should be taken as well. Police officers, he said, started treating the Jewish passengers as terrorists and removed them all from the aircraft, before placing them under tight security into the gate area where there was no air conditioning.
“Finally after six long and endless hours, they decided to make us re-embark,” Ben said, adding that the staff had changed, including one attendant who spoke French, making communicating with the passengers better.
When the Jewish passengers started entering the aircraft, the police wanted to arrest a 22-year-old woman, but her mother begged them not to arrest her, Ben wrote, adding that if the young woman didn’t erase the videos and photos recording their treatment at the departure area where they were held, then she wouldn’t be allowed to board the plane.
A spokesperson for EasyJet confirmed the incident. “We would like to apologize to customers for the inconvenience and the delay. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always EasyJet’s priority,” the spokesperson said in a statement which said police were called ‘’due to a group of passengers behaving in a disruptive manner.’’
When asked by JPUpdates what was EasyJet’s answers to the families’ allegations that they felt that they were treated unfairly because of their religion, the spokesperson replied, “All of our staff are carefully selected and undergo a rigorous training program to maintain our high level of customer care. To confirm, we have a zero tolerance towards discrimination of any kind.’’
Source: EJP