French park manager may be jailed for turning away 150 Israeli holidaymakers

French prosecutors said on Saturday they had placed a man under investigation on suspicion of discrimination for having turned away a group of Israelis from the leisure park he managed.

The man has been released as the investigation continues, but if convicted of discrimination based on ethnic origin or nationality, he could be jailed for up to five years and fined 75,000 euros.

The manager of the park in Porte-Puymorens in the western Pyrenees, near Perpignan, had been detained since Thursday after having turned away the group of children earlier that day.

Prosecutors said then that he had told them he had refused the group entry on the basis of his personal convictions. The 52-year-old man has no criminal record.

The group of 150 Israeli holidaymakers, aged 8 to 16, and on holiday in Spain, were refused entry "even though a reservation had been made long in advance," the prosecutors said.

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 the media.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Friday described the incident as "serious".

"I hope that the courts will be very firm," he added, saying the authorities could not just stand by when anti-Semitic acts were surging.

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 anti-Semitic 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.

Agence France-Presse