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

PARIS: A major French Jewish group on Sunday slammed a hard-left MP for saying Israeli athletes were not welcome at the Paris Olympics from next week because of the war in Gaza, calling the comments “irresponsible”.

France Unbowed (LFI) lawmaker Thomas Portes was “putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes,” said Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, on X.

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.

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, which was sparked by the bloody October 7 attacks by Hamas.

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.

Crif head Arfi said Israeli athletes were “already the most in danger at the Olympic Games”, recalling the 11 “murdered by Palestinian terrorists” in 1972 at the Munich Games.

Beyond 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.