The International Olympic Committee and French President Emmanuel Macron rejected a Palestinian demand that Israel be prohibited from competing in the Paris Games due to its genocidal war on Gaza.
As the Israeli team settled into the Athletes’ Village, the IOC studied a letter from the Palestine Olympic Committee asking for a ban on Israel, citing the bombings of the besieged Gaza Strip as a breach of the Olympic truce.
The letter, sent days before Friday’s opening ceremony, “emphasised that Palestinian athletes, particularly those in Gaza, are denied safe passage and have suffered significantly due to the ongoing conflict”.
It reads: “Approximately 400 Palestinian athletes have been killed and the destruction of sports facilities exacerbates the plight of athletes who are already under severe restrictions”.
But IOC president Thomas Bach indicated that he would not be drawn into “political business”.
He added, “The position of the IOC is very clear. We have two National Olympic Committees, that is the difference with the world of politics, and in this respect both have been living in peaceful co-existence,” he told a press conference in Paris.
“Israeli athletes are welcome in our country,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.
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According a report, President Emmanuel Macron said France was ready to host the Paris Olympics as he visited the Athletes’ Village on Monday, four days before the Games begin.
The Games return to the French capital for the first time since 1924, largely using temporary venues constructed in the centre of the city.
“We are ready and we will be ready throughout the Games,” Macron said.
“We have been working on these Games for years now and we are at the start of a decisive week which on Friday will see the opening ceremony and then the Olympiad which will be held in Paris, 100 years since the last one.”
He added: “This is the fruit of an immense amount of work which has profoundly changed the country, in particular the area” of Seine-Saint-Denis, where the Athletes’ Village is situated.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach also visited the Village to the north of the French capital, where thousands of athletes and officials are arriving, with up to 14,500 expected there at the peak of the Games.
