During the Paris Olympics, 88 Israeli Olympians will receive 24-hour protection, France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in a TV interview on Sunday, reported Reuters on Monday.
The statement came after far-left lawmaker Thomas Portes from La France Insoumise (LFI) declared Israel’s athletes unwelcome and called for protests against their participation.
Some LFI legislators rushed to defend Portes’ statements. Manuel Bompard, an official and legislator wrote on X: “Faced with repeated violations of international law by the Israeli government, it is legitimate to ask that its athletes compete under a neutral banner in the Olympic Games.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will be in Paris for the opening of the Olympic Games on Friday, his office announced in a statement on Sunday.
The games will begin on Friday, despite serious security concerns and rising geopolitical tensions over the situation in Gaza.
Herzog will also take part in a commemoration of the 52nd anniversary of the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Games. This competition was marked by a hostage-taking attack on the Israeli delegation by a Palestinian commando, during which 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer were killed.
France stepped up its security in April around Jewish schools and synagogues, partly as a response to the current Israel-Iran crisis.
Israel’s war on Hamas, which has ravaged Gaza, has become a lightning rod for France’s extreme left, with some opponents charging pro-Palestinian activists of antisemitism.
Gaza’s Health Ministry announced the rising death toll reached 39,006 victims and wounded 89,818 since October, reported “The New Arab” on Monday.