PARIS, (PIC)
A global campaign has been launched to ban Israel from participating in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, due to the genocidal war it has been waging in the Gaza Strip since October 7 last year.
Pro-Palestine activists have launched the hashtag #BanIsraelFromParisOlympics on social media to put pressure on the organizers to prevent the participation of Israeli athletes in the Games scheduled to start on 26 July.
The campaigners stressed that “celebrating the human values of the Olympics contradicts Israel’s oppressive and genocidal practices against the Palestinians.”
They wondered, “How do we celebrate human values while human rights are being brutally violated?!”, adding that “Olympics without Israel is the demand of everyone who believes in justice and humanity.”
European countries, including France and Switzerland, have witnessed demonstrations in front of the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), demanding the exclusion of the Israeli sports teams from participating in the Paris Olympics.
The activists carried Palestinian flags and banners reading, “No Olympic Games for perpetrators of genocide.” “Genocide is not a sport,” “Stop the genocide of Palestinians,” and “Long live the resistance of the Palestinian people.”
“Preventing Russia and Belarus from the Olympics previously and allowing Israel to participate this year is a clear use of double standards,” they stated.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that his country “will provide 24-hour protection for Israeli athletes during the Olympic Games, which will begin in Paris next Friday.”
French leftist MP Thomas Porte called for preventing Israeli athletes from participating in the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris within days, calling for “mobilizing efforts for this reason during the Olympics.”
Last January, French MP Aymeric Caron called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to prevent Israel – as it did with Russia – from participating in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics because of the genocidal war it is waging in the Gaza Strip.
In May, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) submitted a request to the IOC to exclude Israel from the Olympic Games.
