France Unbowed MP sparks outrage by saying Israeli Olympians not welcome
France Unbowed MP sparks outrage by saying Israeli Olympians not welcome
Thomas Portes accused of ‘putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes’ with remarks at protest against Gaza war
An MP for the radical-left France Unbowed party has sparked outrage after saying Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics and calling for protests against their presence.
Citing Israel’s war in Gaza, Thomas Portes told a pro-Palestinian gathering in Paris on Saturday: “We are just a few days away from an international event to be held in Paris, the Olympic Games. And I’m here to say that no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris. We have to use this deadline and all the levers we have to mobilise.”
Yonathan Arfi, the head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), described the comments as “indecent” and “irresponsible”, accusing Portes of “putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes”.
Arfi reminded the MP that 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics and said the country’s Olympians were “already the most in danger” at the Games.
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Ah yes we are absolved from all our currently ongoing crimes, due to previous crimes committed against our ancestors. Logic much.
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*due to previous crimes committed against our ancestors as retaliation for the exact same thing we're doing right now
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It's geopolitical narcissism. This is DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender).
If you're American and don't like this then know we've got a gigantic splinter in our own eye.
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I mean, Hitler was at the Olympics. What have these athletes done to personally contribute to genocide? Should Americans be unwelcome for Vietnam? Iraq? Afghanistan? Gitmo? Any of the various coups in South America? Grenada?
Just a thought. Not sure of the correct course of action here.
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Yes, US athletes absolutely should not be welcome for the many atrocities their country has commited and still comitts.
Russian athletes are not allowed to partake as russians and need to use neutral colors, flags, anthems and are not allowed to be supported by russian organisations duevto their invasion of Ukraine. The same should be applied to Israelis and US athletes.
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They can compete under a new flag like the Russians did awhile ago.
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already the most in danger
yeah, that's typical fascist propaganda. "we are the victims here", despite killing thousands of innocent civilians including women and children.
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This really is the right answer, as much as I despise what Israel is doing.
The Olympics should be about increasing non-hostile relations between people of the world and I don’t think anyone should be excluded.
Complicating this stance though is the compulsory military service that means that the attending athletes are associated with the military and the ongoing atrocities.
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If your neighbor is under investigation for murdering their spouse and children, do you invite them to the pub on Fridays in the name of improving non-hostile neighborly relations?
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It's not the right answer though. Israel is waging war against their own people in essence, not against a foreign nation.
They should be held to the same standards as Russia or worse.
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Who's outraged, besides the war criminals?
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
An MP for the radical-left France Unbowed party has sparked outrage after saying Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics and calling for protests against their presence.
Yonathan Arfi, the head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), described the comments as “indecent” and “irresponsible”, accusing Portes of “putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes”.
Arfi reminded the MP that 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics and said the country’s Olympians were “already the most in danger” at the Games.
Portes later told Le Parisien newspaper that French diplomats should put pressure on the International Olympic Committee to ban the Israeli flag and anthem at the Games, which open on Friday, “as is done for Russia”.
The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said: “The hints of antisemitism in his [Portes’] comments are obvious.”
Israel’s football team is scheduled to play its first match of the Olympics against Mali in Paris’s Parc des Princes stadium on Wednesday, two days before the opening ceremony.
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