An MP for the far-left ‘La France Insoumise’ (France Unbowed) party  declarerd at a rally in support of the Palestinian people that “Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics.” The minister denounced the statement as ”antisemitic.” ‘’ I want to express my disgust at that. I want to assure the Israeli athletes of our full protection, like all athletes, but particularly them, also welcoming them.’’

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that the Israeli delegation to the Paris Olympics ‘’will be subject to reinforced security.’’

Speaking to the France 2 television channel news, Darmanin said : “A fortnight ago, I proposed to the President of the Republic that the Israeli delegation (Olympic and Paralympic) be fully protected by the French police around the clock. We took this decision because we know that Israeli athletes, particularly since the Munich Games, have been targeted by attacks.’’

The minister’s statement should be seen in the context of the polemical remarks made by a MP for the far-left ‘La France Insoumise’ (France Unbowed) party Thomas Portes who declarerd at a rally in support of the Palestinian people the previous day that “Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics”. The MP, known for his many polemics and serial blunders, had also called for “mobilization”.

Gérald Darmani  said that Thomas Portes was “putting a target on the back” of Israeli athletes, deploring “obvious anti-Semitic overtones’’. “He is not attacking the North Korean or Iranian delegation, he is knowingly attacking the Israeli delegation because they are Jewish,’’ he added.

He continued, ‘’ I want to express my disgust at that. I want to assure the Israeli athletes of our full protection, like all athletes, but particularly them, also welcoming them.’’

Thomas Portes’s remarks sparked a wave of indignation. On X,  Yonathan Arfi, president of Crif, the umbrella representative group for Jewish institutions in France, said that “since October 7, Thomas Portes has been legitimizing Hamas”.

He also felt that the far-left MP “put a target on the backs of Israeli athletes, who are already the most threatened at the Olympic Games”, recalling that at the 1972 Munich Olympics eleven Israelis had “been murdered by Palestinian terrorists”.

The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, called for the dissolution of La France insoumise. “I request that dissolution proceedings be initiated against LFI and, in the meantime, the withdrawal of all public aid against this party and its members, who have definitively banished themselves from the nation,” he wrote on X.

A full-scale security test will take place at the Parc des Princes stadium on Wednesday, two days before the official opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.

At 9 p.m., a soccer match between the men’s teams of Israel and Mali will kick off. Since the group draw in March, the French Ministry of the Interior has made the match one of the most sensitive moments of the Games in terms of security. A high level of control must be put in place ahead of the match, both by the State and by the Paris 2024 organization.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. He will participate  on Wednesday in a memorial commemoration marking 52 years since Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli sportsmen at the Munich Games. He will later watch Israel’s soccer team play against Mali at the Parc des Princes Stadium.