By Joiner Martinez
22 Jul 2024, 16:25 PM EDT
France will provide 24-hour protection for the Israeli Olympic team during the Paris Olympics amid tensions over the war in Gaza.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the measure following controversial remarks by a far-left lawmaker.
Israeli athletes will receive round-the-clock protection during the Paris Olympics, France’s interior minister said on Monday, after a far-left lawmaker said Israel’s delegation was not welcome and called for protests against its participation.
The Games open on Friday against a backdrop of heightened security concerns at a time of rising geopolitical tensions over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in a television interview that Israeli athletes would be protected 24 hours a day during the Games, 52 years after the Munich Olympic massacre in which 11 Israelis were killed by Palestinian militants.
Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné told a meeting of EU counterparts in Brussels on Monday: “I would like to say on behalf of France, to the Israeli delegation, that we welcome them to France for these Olympic Games.”
The Israeli delegation is the welcome to the Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques.
La France will assure the security of all délegations. pic.twitter.com/r4WEkhkRTq
— Stéphane Séjourné (@steph_sejourne) July 22, 2024
He said he would reiterate this point in an upcoming phone call with his Israeli counterpart, and would also “tell him that we are guaranteeing the security of the Israeli delegation.”
At a pro-Gaza rally on Saturday, far-left LFI MP Thomas Portes was recorded saying that Israeli Olympic athletes were not welcome in France, and that there should be protests against their participation in the Games.
“We are just a few days away from an international event that will be held in Paris, which is the Olympic Games. And I am here to say that no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympic Games,” he said to applause, according to images posted on social media.
Some LFI MPs partially defended Portes’ comments. Manuel Bompard, a senior party official and MP, wrote in X that he supported Portes “in the face of the wave of hatred he is suffering.”
“In the face of the Israeli government’s repeated violations of international law, it is legitimate to demand that its athletes compete under a neutral flag at the Olympic Games,” he wrote.
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