France MP Sparks Backlash By Calling For Israeli Olympians To Be Banned From Olympics
A member of the French Parliament for the radical-left France Unbowed (LFI) party has sparked outrage over the weekend after saying Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics and calling for protests against their presence.
Noting Israel’s war in Gaza, Thomas Portes told a pro-Palestine gathering in Paris on Saturday: “We are just a few days away from an international event to be held in Paris, the Olympic Games. And I’m here to say that no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris. We have to use this deadline and all the levers we have to mobilize.”
“France’s diplomats should pressure the International Olympic Committee to bar the Israeli flag and anthem, as is done for Russia,” he said “It’s time to end the double standard.”
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee announced earlier that Russian and Belarusian athletes would only be allowed to compete in the games under a neutral flag and would not be allowed to participate in the opening ceremony due to the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the ruling by the committee.
Portes comments earned immediate criticism from the opposition.
Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, said on X that was “putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes”.
“Indecency of Thomas Portes!” he said. “1972: 11 Israeli athletes are murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics. 2024: LFI calls for the exclusion of Israeli athletes from the Paris Olympics.”
Karen Taieb, one of Paris’s deputy mayors, said Portes was “a danger and a disgrace.”
“What we expect from our elected representatives is the idea of joining together. These people are advocating hatred,” Taieb wrote on X.
The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said: “The hints of antisemitism in his [Portes’] comments are obvious.”
Despite the criticism, Portes doubled down on his comments in a statement to French newspaper Le Parisien, claiming that Israel and Russia are similar in both wars.
“I believe that French diplomacy must put pressure on the IOC so that the Israeli flag and anthem are not allowed during these Olympic Games, as is done for Russia,” he said. “We must put an end to the double standards.”
The Paris 2024 organizing committee has announced they will have almost 45,000 security personnel on duty this Friday for the opening ceremony.
Security was the number one priority for Paris 2024,” organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said, according to Le Monde.
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