The head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and French President Emmanuel Macron rejected Tuesday a Palestinian demand that Israel be barred from the Paris Games over the war in Gaza.
As the Israeli team settled into the Athletes’ Village, the IOC studied a letter from the Palestine Olympic Committee asking for a ban on Israel, citing the bombings of the besieged Gaza Strip as a breach of the Olympic truce.
The letter, sent days before Friday’s opening ceremony, “emphasised that Palestinian athletes, particularly those in Gaza, are denied safe passage and have suffered significantly due to the ongoing conflict”.
It said “approximately 400 Palestinian athletes have been killed and the destruction of sports facilities exacerbates the plight of athletes who are already under severe restrictions”.
But IOC president Thomas Bach indicated that he would not be drawn into “political business”.
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He added: “The position of the IOC is very clear. We have two National Olympic Committees, that is the difference with the world of politics, and in this respect both have been living in peaceful co-existence,” he told a press conference in Paris.
“The Palestinian NOC has greatly benefitted. Palestine is not a recognised member state of the UN but the NOC is a recognised National Olympic Committee enjoying the equal rights and opportunities like all the other NOCs.”
The Palestinian call highlights how the rising death toll in Gaza — 39,090, according to the latest estimate from the Hamas-run health ministry — and the growing humanitarian crisis is impacting the Paris Games.
Some left-wing French politicians have also called for Israel athletes to be barred in the same way as Russian and Belarussian athletes have been stripped of the right to compete under their national colours over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“Israeli athletes are welcome in our country,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.
“They must be able to compete under their colours because the Olympic movement has decided it,” he told France 2 television in an interview, adding that it was “France’s responsibility to provide them with security”.
“I condemn in the strongest possible way all those who create risks for these athletes and implicitly threaten them,” he said.
