French MP Sparks Uproar By Denouncing Israeli Presence Paris Olympics

– French MP Sparks Uproar By Denouncing Israeli Presence Paris Olympics:

The participation of Israel in the Olympic Games that will begin next Friday in Paris has aroused heated controversy in France after a left-wing MP said the country should be shunned over its war in Gaza. At a pro-Gaza rally on Saturday, France Unbowed (LFI) MP Thomas Portes was filmed saying Israel’s Olympic delegation was “not welcome in Paris”, and that there should be protests against its taking part in the games.

“Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris,” Portes said, calling for using “the deadline” of the event and “all the levers that we have to create mobilizations and denounce the presence of a state which today massacres [the Palestinian] people.”

Portes represents Seine-Saint-Denis, the department that hosts the Olympic Village and the Stade de France. Later, he clarified his comments, saying that he was not opposed to the presence of Israeli athletes but wanted “French diplomacy to put pressure on the IOC [International Olympic Committee] so that the Israeli flag and anthem are not allowed during these Olympic Games, as is done for Russia”.

Despite his follow-up comments, the MP’s remarks sparked an outcry, with many political figures on the right and left denouncing them. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin expressed the “disgust” he felt at Portes’s remarks, which he said “smack of antisemitism”, adding that the MP was putting “a target on the backs of Israeli athletes”.

Darmanin announced that the Israeli athletes would receive 24-hour protection from the GIGN, French elite forces, during the competition.

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