Outrage after French MP says Israelis ‘not welcome’ at Olympics

 

FMT

Outrage after French MP

says Israelis ‘not welcome’

at Olympics

AFP

-22 Jul 2024, 07:35 AM

Thomas Portes says the Israeli flag and anthem should be banned from the Games, ‘as is done for Russia’.

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The Paris Olympics will be held from July 26 to Aug 11. (AP pic)

PARIS: 

A French hard-left MP sparked a political row Sunday by saying Israeli athletes were not welcome at the Paris Olympics because of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which one senior minister said had 

hints of antisemitism

.

France Unbowed (LFI) lawmaker Thomas Portes was 

putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes

, interior minister Gerald Darmanin told broadcaster France 2, echoing criticisms made by a major Jewish group earlier Sunday.

Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, said Israeli athletes were 

already the most in danger at the Olympic Games

, referencing the 11 

murdered by Palestinian terrorists

 in 1972 at the Munich Games.

In a post on X, Arfi branded Portes’s comments 

irresponsible

 and accused him of 

legitimising Hamas

, the Palestinian group whose Oct 7 attacks on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

Portes had said at a rally in support of Palestinians that 

the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli sportspeople are not welcome at the Paris Olympic Games

 and called for 

mobilisation

 around the event.

He later told the Parisien newspaper that 

France’s diplomats should pressure the International Olympic Committee to bar the Israeli flag and anthem, as is done for Russia

.

It’s time to end the double standard,

 Portes added.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a limited number of Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in Paris as individuals and not under their country’s colours, and only after being vetted to ensure they have not expressed support for the war.

Opposition to Israel’s campaign in Gaza was a centrepiece of LFI’s campaign ahead of European elections last month.

The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said Sunday that almost 39,000 people had been killed in the fighting, most of them women and children.

Perceived ambiguity in LFI’s response to the October massacre broke apart an alliance of left-wing parties, which grudgingly reformed for this month’s parliamentary polls but has since struggled to find common ground despite coming first.

Beyond Darmanin and the Jewish group, Portes also came under attack from nominal parliamentary allies in the Socialist party and conservatives.

Of course Israeli athletes are welcome, like all sportspeople from all over the world. Not for who they are but for what they do,

 Socialist MP Jerome Guedj posted.

Some LFI lawmakers came out in support of Portes.

The Israeli flag, stained with the blood of Gaza’s innocents, should not fly in Paris this summer,

 MP Aymeric Caron wrote.

Israel’s football team is set to play its first Olympic match against Mali in Paris’ Parc des Prince stadium on Wednesday, two days before the opening ceremony.

Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s office said Sunday that he would attend Friday’s boat parade on the river Seine and a commemoration for the Israelis killed in Munich in 1972.