22 February 2024; MEMO: Twenty-six French lawmakers have asked the International Olympic Committee to bar Israel from competing in the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
In a letter to Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee, the lawmakers condemned “the unprecedented war crimes committed by Israel” against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
According to UN data issued in November 2023, they continued, about 10,000 civilians, including 560 children, were killed as a result of the war in Ukraine in approximately two years, however, four months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the death toll has approached 40,000 and 70,000 have been wounded, most of them children.
The French representatives demanded that Israeli athletes should compete neutrally like Russian and Belarusian athletes in the 2024 Paris Olympics. They stressed that these restrictions should not be lifted until a long-term ceasefire is announced in Gaza.
The International Olympic Committee has previously announced that athletes from Russia and Belarus can participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics as independent and neutral athletes, while athletes who had publicly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be expelled.
