As the world turns its attention to Paris for the Olympic Games, the Palestine Olympic Committee (POC) has made a last-minute move to bar Israeli athletes from competing in the Games due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The POC has compiled a dossier of Israeli athletes’ involvement in Israel’s aggression on Gaza. The evidence is part of the documents handed to the IOC to ban Israel altogether from the competition.

It all happened as a left-wing MP voiced his support for shunning Israel over its country’s attacks on Gaza.

“The reason why we’re doing this – for the human rights violations happening in Gaza, and the killings and murders of every single person,” said Nader Jayousi, the deputy secretary general of the POC.

Mr Jayousi added that Israeli athletes have acted in ways that are incompatible with the Olympic spirit.

Some Israeli athletes have made visits to military units deployed near Gaza to “encourage the Israeli army”, Mr Jayousi said.

He also points to a controversial incident involving an Israeli judo champion who is said to have shared on social media images of signed missiles, with one showing a caption that reads ‘from me to you with pleasure’. Israel’s judo federation said he did not sign the missile himself.

The call for a ban has gained traction in recent months. An online petition garnered over 640,000 signatures, while protests even reached the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Despite the growing pressure, it remains unlikely that the IOC will bar Israeli athletes or require them to compete under a neutral flag, as it demands with Russian athletes following Moscow’s attacks in Ukraine. This disparity has led to accusations of hypocrisy against the international sporting body.

Israeli athletes “not welcome in Paris”

Israel’s assault on Palestinian sport has been severe. Majed Abu Marheel, Palestine’s first Olympian runner, died recently due to a lack of medical aid in Gaza. In January, an Israeli airstrike killed Hani Al-Masdar, coach of the Palestinian Olympic football team.

At a pro-Gaza demonstration over the weekend, France Unbowed (LFI) MP Thomas Portes was recorded saying Israeli athletes were “not welcome in Paris” and calling for protests against their involvement.

Portes, who represents Seine-Saint-Denis, the area hosting the Olympic Village.

“Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris,” Portes said, calling for using “the deadline” of the event and “all the levers that we have to create mobilisations and denounce the presence of a state which today massacres [the Palestinian] people.”

After Portes received some backlash from certain quarters, he clarified his position, stating he wasn’t opposed to Israeli athletes but wanted “French diplomacy to put pressure on the IOC so that the Israeli flag and anthem are not allowed during these Olympic Games, as is done for Russia”.

Meanwhile, Palestine will be represented by eight athletes at the Olympics, including first-time boxer Waseem Abu Sal.

But the ongoing war has cast a shadow over the Palestinian team’s preparations.

Abu Sal, from the West Bank, receives daily workouts sent to him by coach Ahmed Harara, who cannot physically train him due to restrictions. Israeli military checkpoints within the West Bank have also complicated his ability to find consistent sparring partners, forcing him to practise with a partner several weight classes above him.

Many athletes have connections to Gaza, and some have lost friends and family during the last ten months. 

.