Paris Air Show blocks Israel weapons exhibits

France has shut down four stands belonging to Israeli arms companies at the Paris Air Show. According to a Reuters report today, French authorities ordered the closure after Israeli companies failed to comply with a directive from a national security agency instructing them to remove offensive and kinetic weapons from display.

The decision to shut down the weapons stand was reportedly carried out overnight after the Israeli exhibits were already installed.

In a statement, Israel’s Ministry of Defence denounced the move as “outrageous and unprecedented”, accusing France of using “supposedly political considerations” to exclude Israeli arms that directly compete with French manufacturers.

The ministry claimed exhibition organisers erected a black wall to isolate the Israeli pavilions from others.

A spokesperson for the show’s organiser, the French aerospace industries association (GIFAS), confirmed some closures but declined to comment further.

Read: ‘France provided Israel with weapons used to bomb civilians in Gaza’

While three smaller Israeli booths and one representing the Israeli Ministry of Defence remained open, the stands that were shut belonged to key players in Israel’s defence sector. These companies have long used the show to market weapons—many of them battlefield-tested on Palestinians—to European and international buyers.

France’s action comes as relations between Paris and Tel Aviv have soured amid global outrage at Israel’s continuing bombardment and siege of Gaza. French President Emmanuel Macron, once a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has become increasingly vocal in his criticism.

The fallout in Paris further highlights Israel’s growing isolation, as even traditional Western partners face pressure to dissociate from a regime accused of genocide. Human rights experts and genocide scholars have repeatedly warned that Israel’s war on Gaza—now in its twentieth month—meets the legal threshold for genocide, with over 55,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, killed since October 2023.

Read: French president calls for halt on arms shipments to Israel