Why Team Israel should have no place at the Paris Olympics

Images of dead and mutilated Palestinian children continued to dominate the news as Isaac Herzog arrived in Paris to attend the Olympics.

The notoriously belligerent president of Israel – someone who has been pictured signing bombs destined to fall on Gaza – displayed characteristic cynicism after touching down at Charles de Gaulle airport last week.

Without a single mention of the ongoing mass slaughter of civilians on Palestinian land, he said: “At this time, it is especially important for the State of Israel to take our place resolutely and appear on every global stage, and particularly on such an important stage as the Olympics.”

Such a gold medal-grade attempt at sportswashing belies the conventional treatment of states involved in well evidenced allegations of crimes against humanity, including “extermination”. Arrest warrants being sought for senior Israeli politicians by the International Criminal Court (ICC) use the word, and they have been accompanied by an unprecedented condemnation of decades of ruthless oppression and apartheid.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) this month called on Israel to cease settlement construction immediately, and to end its “unlawful” occupation of stolen territory. Critics of Herzog’s regime have also called for it to stop dehumanising Palestinians by calling them “cockroaches” and “human animals”.

Herzog himself said all citizens of Gaza were responsible for the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed in appalling circumstances, many by Israeli fire, claiming: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not being involved.”

This is the kind of cataclysmic thinking that has seen Russians banned from competing at the Paris Olympics in their country’s name. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and subsequent attempt to annihilate large swathes of its population while obliterating infrastructure, are rightly seen as good reasons for keeping it away from a great sporting occasion that is meant to celebrate humanity, not help legitimise its destruction.

Read: Israel should be banned from Paris Olympics, say campaigners

Yet – rather than being ostracised – team Israel is in Paris, surrounded by police special forces and slick PR teams at all times. Herzog himself was given a VIP reception by President Emmanuel Macron at the start of the Olympics.

Saturday – the first official day of sport – coincided with the Israelis wiping out a school near Deir Al-Balah, a city in central Gaza. Pictures clearly showed children among the 30 plus civilians killed and more than a hundred wounded. On the same day, 70 civilians were killed by Israeli strikes around Khan Yunis, while two Palestinians were shot dead and scores injured in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Yet Macron even said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose name is prominently on the ICC arrest warrant as an alleged war criminal, would also be welcome in Paris. This is while both Netanyahu and Herzog show abject indifference to a death toll of Palestinians approaching 40,000, with many more severely wounded, or lost under piles of rubble caused by the wholesale destruction of hospitals, schools, housing blocks, mosques and other buildings.

The British medical journal the Lancet conservatively estimates the death toll in Gaza at up to 186,000 or more due to injuries and other factors caused by Israel’s attacks, such as starvation and disease. This translates to 8% of the population in the Gaza Strip.

Challenge their barbarity, and the Israelis suggest that such a genocide – as it is being referred to around the world, including by international bodies – is somehow necessary to “defend” themselves against terrorist groups. The truth is that you can wholeheartedly condemn what happened on 7 October, while also expressing outrage at Israel’s lethal cruelty. There is no doubt that Palestinian civilians are subject to collective punishment.

Unlike Hamas, Israel is armed and funded to the tune of billions by western countries including France, Britain and America. Such nations are meant to oppose the annihilation of an entire population and of anyone considered to be potential enemies, including newborn babies, medics, aid workers or journalists. The way the Israeli regime now vaguely cites “destroying Hamas” as an attempted excuse for any murderous attack is obscene.

Speaking at US Congress last week, Netanyahu pathetically claimed that “practically no civilian” had been killed in Gaza. Meanwhile, Herzog and his associates are continually referring to the killing of 11 Israelis competing in the 1972 Olympics in Munich by Black September militants from Palestine. Again, the deceit is that any atrocity at all, however long ago, somehow legitimises attacks by Israel that have been going on since its creation in 1948.

The non-stop propaganda has enraged pro-Palestine organisations in Paris, including many supported by Jewish groups. Hence MP Aymeric Caron saying: “The Israeli flag, stained with the blood of the innocent people of Gaza should not fly in Paris this summer.”

Human life is far more important than sport, and Palestinians have as much right to it as anyone else. There are only eight Palestinian athletes competing at Paris 2024 because Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza has left 400 dead over the past ten months, including champions and Olympians. Despite the claims of warmongers such as Herzog, they had absolutely nothing to do with the ongoing violence in the Middle East.

In contrast, the very fact that terrifying men like Herzog are acting as figureheads for the Israeli Olympics team is hugely significant. Team Israel competitors have also served in the military, with some boasting about their barbarity in Gaza on social media. This highlights why – like the Russians – Israelis should not be allowed to compete in their country’s name.

Read: Palestinian flags unfurled by football fans in protest against Israel at Paris Olympics

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.