French MP, Thomas Portes, Says Israeli Athletes are Not Welcome at Paris Olympics

Israel is NOT WELCOME at Olympics

Israeli athletes are “not welcome” at the Paris Olympics, according to a French lawmaker, who also called for demonstrations against Israel’s involvement.

 

The National Assembly member Thomas Portes, who represents the highly diverse Seine-Saint-Denis district of Paris’ third constituency, has drawn harsh condemnation for his remarks on Saturday suggesting that Israeli athletes shouldn’t be permitted to compete in the Olympics.

 

“The Olympic Games, a major international event, will take place in Paris in a few days. The Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris, as I am here to clarify.

 

At an anti-Israeli protest in Paris, Portes—a former member of the French Communist Party and current member of radical socialist Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left LFI party—made the remarks. Before the games started the following week, he continued to demand “a mobilization” against Israeli athletes, according to Le Figaro.

 

Rep. Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) head Yonathan Arfi charged the left-leaning politician with placing “a target on the back of Israeli athletes.”

 

1972: At the Munich Olympics, 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists. 2024: The LFI demands that Israeli athletes not compete in the Olympics in Paris. Thomas Portes has given Hamas legitimacy since October 7. Israeli athletes, who are already the most threatened at the Olympics, are now being singled out by him, according to Arfi.

The European Jewish Organization (OJE) president, Muriel Ouaknine-Melki, declared that the LFI MP would be the target of a formal complaint from her organization.

 

At a protest against pension reforms, Portes was previously sanctioned when it was captured on camera that he stepped on a ball bearing the effigy of then-Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt. The event led to a two-week suspension of the LFI lawmaker from the National Assembly.

 

With Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the head of La France Insoumise, controversially downplaying the surge in anti-Jewish occurrences in France following the October 7th terror strikes on Israel, the organization has long been accused of antisemitism and of cozying up to radical Islamists in France. Furthermore, the party has adamantly resisted classifying Hamas as terrorists.

 

Despite this, in a contentious decision to keep Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally party from winning the legislative elections earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron allied with the New Popular Front, a leftist political alliance that includes the LFI.