French leisure park manager detained over alleged religious discrimination against Israeli children

PARIS (AP) — The manager of a leisure park in southern France has been detained for alleged religious discrimination after a group of Israeli children was refused access to the facility, a French prosecutor’s office said in a statement Friday.

The Israeli children, aged 8 to 16, were on holiday in Spain and had made a reservation for Thursday to use the zip line facility in Porté-Puymorens, near the Spanish border in the Pyrenean mountains, the Perpignan prosecutor’s office said.

The prosecutor’s office said the manager initially told some people he was refusing the group access on the grounds of “personal beliefs” before offering other justifications to others.

A message posted Wednesday evening on the park’s social media said the site would be closed Thursday due to a storm, “in order to carry out a complete inspection of the facilities.”

The park told the group they could not visit. They went to another leisure facility in France with no incident, the statement said.

The manager denied any wrongdoing, it added.

“A line was crossed. We are appalled,” said Perla Danan, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.

“It started with graffiti, insults and physical attacks and now it’s literally a ban on children aged 8 to 16,” Danan said, adding that it reminded her of the “no Jews or dogs allowed” sign during the Holocaust.

“France’s values have been violated,” she said.

Jean-Philippe Augé, the mayor of Porté-Puymorens, which has around 100 inhabitants, said “the DNA of our community is based on a sense of sharing and fraternity,” adding that the incident had caused “utter astonishment” in the village.

Augé said the zip line course is operated by a private company.

The Jewish Observatory of France also expressed “deep outrage” in a statement Friday. It said “such an act of discrimination, targeting minors exclusively on the basis of their nationality and origin, is extremely serious and undermines the fundamental principles of the Republic.”

“Discrimination based on religion” is an offense punishable by up to three years in prison in France.

Antisemitism has surged in France, with a sharp increase in incidents reported in 2023 after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. These include physical assaults, threats, vandalism, and harassment, prompting alarm among Jewish communities and leaders.