French lawmakers demand sanctions on Israel for 2024 Paris Olympics

Opposition lawmakers in France have requested that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) impose sanctions on Israel at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which their country will host this year, and that Israelis competing in the games participate under a "neutral athlete" status.

According to reports in the local press, 26 lawmakers from the La France Insoumise (LFI) and the Green Party (EELV), which are part of the leftist NUPES alliance in France, sent a letter to IOC President Thomas Bach.

In the letter, the lawmakers condemned Israel's "unprecedented war crimes" and stated the following:

"According to data published by the United Nations (UN) in November 2023, it is known that nearly 10,000 civilians, including 560 children, have lost their lives in the nearly 2 years since the war in Ukraine began. In contrast, after 'only 4 months' of attacks in Gaza, the number of dead and missing Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are women and children, has approached 40,000, and 70,000 people, mostly children, have been injured."

The lawmakers demanded that the same sanctions applied to Russia and Belarus at the 2024 Paris Olympics be applied to Israel as well.

Stating that the sanctions should only be lifted if a long-term ceasefire is decided by Israel, the lawmakers requested that Israeli athletes, just like the Russians and Belarusians, compete under a "neutral athlete" status without carrying their country's emblem or flag.

The IOC had previously announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics under a "neutral athlete" status, but that athletes who actively support the war Russia is waging against Ukraine would not be permitted to participate in the Olympics.