Just one day before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Gamesand amid criticism, the president of France, Emmanuel Macronstressed that “Israeli athletes are welcome” to the competition and assured that will represent “their colors.”
The president’s remarks came after a left-wing MP pointed out that last Saturday Israeli athletes were not “welcome” in Paris. The Palestinian Olympic Committee also called for Israel’s exclusion from the world’s top sporting competition, due to the conflict against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“I have always said: It is the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that decide and we do not do politics with the Games“, Macron argued.
In turn, he condemned “with the utmost firmness all those who in any way They put these athletes at risk “and which implicitly threatens them,” he added, responding to criticism from the French opposition, who had condemned a “double standard”, contrasting the situation of Israeli athletes with Russians, who will only participate in small numbers and without the possibility of representing their country.
Macron nevertheless described the position of Thomas Portes, a member of the French party Insoumise (LFI), as “unacceptable”.
Criticism against the IOC for the inclusion of Israeli athletes in Paris 2024
Last weekend, the legislator had expressed his support for the Palestinian people and had considered that “Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics” and called for “mobilizations.”
In the same vein as the president, the French foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné He maintained that these were “irresponsible and dangerous statements” and stressed that the delegation is “welcome in France.”
Macron also recalled that continues to support “the two-state solution” (Israeli and Palestinian)” and called “a ceasefire.” “What is happening in Gaza today is unacceptable,” he stressed.
The Palestinian Olympic Committee announced on Monday that it had requested the IOC bans Israeli athletes from Gamesconsidering that Israel violated the Olympic truce by “bombing Gaza and causing civilian casualties.”
Unprecedented: Olympic Games without Russian participation
For its part, the The International Olympic Committee has decided that Russian athletes cannot participate in the competition representing their country.
Due to the war that the country has been facing against Ukraine since February 2022, They only authorized the participation of athletes under a neutral flag, without the possibility of winning medals or singing their anthem. They also demanded that the athletes not publicly support the invasion of Ukraine.
The same conditions had been imposed in Tokyo 2021, for the scandalous investigation that revealed a government doping program. However, unlike the last Olympic event, only 15 Russian athletes agreed to join the Games under the conditions of the IOC, compared to the 335 who participated in 2021.
Source: Ambito
