French police are holding for questioning the manager of an activity park in the south of France after a group of 150 young Israeli tourists were refused entry. The manager of the park in Porte-Puymorens in the Pyrenees mountains was detained Thursday, August 22, for "discrimination based on religion" over the incident the same day, prosecutors in the city of Perpignan told AFP agency.
The group of 150 Israeli holidaymakers, all minors aged 8 to 16 on holiday in Spain, were refused entry "even though a reservation had been made long in advance," prosecutors said. The man had said that he refused access to his establishment due to "personal convictions," according to prosecutors.
The manager, 52, has no criminal record but faces up to three years in prison if he is charged with discrimination based on religion while providing a service. The group of Israeli holidaymakers "changed their plans and travelled, on three buses, to another site in France, with security ensured by the gendarmerie without any incident at that time," the prosecutor's office told AFP.
"This is not our conception of the Republic, this is not our conception of human dignity," Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told BFMTV, describing the incident as "serious."
The number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in France soared in 2023, in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas which was followed by Israel's assault on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Reported antisemitic acts in France surged from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, before dipping from that high level to 1,570 last year, according to the interior ministry.