Imagine you purchase a plane ticket, go on vacation to a foreign country, and when it is time to go back home, you find out the airline is refusing to take you home claiming the ticket was not paid for. This is what is happening to 1,200 Jewish tourists from France.
The tourists found out that Yoel Marciano, a travel agent in Paris from whom they purchased their plane tickets, deceived them. He did not transfer the money to the airlines for their ticket back to France, which is why the airlines are refusing to fly them.
“I don’t know what is happening anymore,” said Joel Margi, the head of the Jewish community in Paris, who is currently in Israel. “People purchased tickets from the French travel agency Israfly owned by Marciano, and they can’t return to France. They’re very upset.”
The tourists have been stuck in Israel since the beginning of August, during the height of the war.
“They love Israel, but they want to return home. They have to spend hundreds of dollars to extend their stay in hotels, and to also independently purchase a plane ticket. Unfortunately, because there is a great demand for flights, finding seats is very difficult,” said Margi.
One of the tourists who came to Israel with a ticket he bought from Marciano, said that it is written on his ticket that he has to confirm his flight 48 hours beforehand.
“There is an Eilat phone number on it but there’s no answer when I call. I only have a piece of paper that says that I have to go back home on a certain date but there is no airline, no flight number, and no time of departure. Basically, I have a piece of paper that is worth nothing.”
In France, the Foreign Ministry, the Transport Ministry, and the aviation authority hold meetings to find a solution for the tourists and to bring them back to France.