PARIS — Amid heightened security and protests, the Israeli soccer team is set to take the field at the Parc des Princes stadium on Wednesday against Mali, a country that doesn’t recognize Israel, competing in one of the first events of what is shaping up to be an extremely tense Summer Olympics.
The Paris Opening Ceremonies aren’t until Friday night, but already these Games are mired in politics, with frictions over Israel’s war in Gaza and Russia’s war in Ukraine on full display.
The Paris Olympics “are the most geopolitically charged Olympics that we have seen in decades,” said Jules Boykoff, an American political scientist and former professional soccer player.
“The risk is that we are entering a historical phase” that could result in the “Olympic planet breaking up,” said Patrick Clastres, a cultural historian at the University of Lausanne.
French President Emmanuel Macron had promoted a “political truce” — around the world and within France — for the duration of the Games. But it is not clear how many countries or individuals are heeding the call.
One left-wing French lawmaker, Thomas Portes, generated particular controversy by telling a pro-Palestinian rally Saturday that the Israeli athletes and political delegation “are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris.” He echoed activists in demanding “an end to double standards” and said the Israeli flag and anthem should be banned during the Games, “as is done for Russia.”
Russian and Belarusian teams have been excluded from these Olympics, though 15 Russian athletes and 16 Belarusians have been permitted to compete as neutrals — as long as they don’t endorse the war in Ukraine.
Macron maintained that the situations in Russia and Israel are “profoundly different,” because “Israel responded to a terrorist attack,” and although France has condemned some of Israel’s actions in Gaza since that Oct. 7 Hamas attack, “this is not a war of aggression.”
The French president added: “Israeli athletes are welcome in our country. They must be able to compete under their colors because that is what the Olympic movement has decided. France’s responsibility is to welcome them in complete safety.”
According to Israeli media, at least 15 of the 88 team members have received recent emails warning of a repeat of the 1972 Munich attacks, when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed by members of a Palestinian militant group.
Since Munich, the Israeli Olympic team has traveled with its own security detail. That security has been enhanced in Paris this year. But it won’t be like the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden in May, when contestant Eden Golan, 20, was secluded in a police-guarded hotel except for rehearsals and performances. Israeli athletes are staying in the Olympic Village, eating with other athletes and taking part in the Opening Ceremonies, said an official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans.
“It’s not one singer in a contest,” the official said. “It’s a huge contingent of athletes.”
France is deploying 1,000 police officers at Wednesday’s soccer match, and there will be a heavy security presence throughout the Games. Beyond the Israeli team, the Interior Ministry has expressed concern that the Olympics could be a target for activities ranging from drone attacks to cyberwarfare.
On Tuesday, French police indicted a Russian national over a suspected plot to cause “destabilization during the Olympic Games,” according to prosecutors.
Vincent Strubel, head of France’s cybersecurity agency, said in an interview that the Russian invasion of Ukraine sensitized French authorities to the growing risk of “disruption, sabotage and destruction of critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.” His agency worked with 500 high-risk entities involved in the Olympics to strengthen their protection mechanisms.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported that France had denied a “large number” of Russians who applied for media accreditation during the Olympics but may have been seeking it for purposes of “intelligence gathering” or “to gain access to computer networks in order to carry out a cyberattack.”
Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, said the “threats of espionage and cyberattacks cited by the French authorities are a completely absurd, unsubstantiated claim.”
The French authorities who are overseeing security screening and other aspects of Olympic preparations are the same as those who were in place before July 7 legislative elections that resulted in political chaos, without any block having a clear path to form a government. Macron said Tuesday that he would keep his government in place in a caretaker role at least through the end of the Olympics.
“Until mid-August, we are not in a position to change things since it would create disorder,” he said in an interview with France 2 television. (That also amounted to a rejection, for now, of a prime minister candidate put forward an hour earlier by the left-wing coalition that won the most seats in the National Assembly.)
The French government, the Paris 2024 organizers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are all keen to avoid the sort of protests that would mar the success of the Games. That includes the possibility that dancers cast in the Opening Ceremonies will make good on a threat to strike Friday.
But opinions about Israel’s war in Gaza are especially heated.
It’s possible that athletes may add their voices to the protests. “We’re living in a moment of athlete empowerment on a lot of fronts, and with that comes confidence to speak out,” Boykoff said.
Athletes are banned from expressing their political views during competitions and official ceremonies, but some may test the boundaries by, for example, refusing handshakes.
“The organizing committee and the IOC are preparing for expressions of political views during the next weeks,” said Pim Verschuuren, a research fellow at Rennes 2 University. “Their reaction to the protests will be adapted to the nature of the protest, and the size.”
This is also the first Olympics since the pandemic where fans are back in the stands. They’re only allowed to bring flags of competing countries or territories to the competitions. Signs with political messages are banned.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Paris on Tuesday night and were expected to stage more demonstrations Wednesday to pressure the IOC to exclude Israel from the Games.
“The whole thing is so bloody hypocritical,” protester Susanne Shields said at the Tuesday demonstration. “Obviously, they’re doing absolutely nothing.”
The IOC sanctioned Russia in 2022 over its invasion of Ukraine, which coincided with the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The IOC said Russia had violated the Olympic Truce, a tradition from ancient Greece that was revived in recent decades, and that asks countries to set aside conflict for a period extending from seven days before the Olympic Games to seven days after the Paralympic Games.
Russia’s Olympic Committee was then fully suspended last year after incorporating regional sports associations in occupied parts of Ukraine.
In a letter to IOC chief Thomas Bach on Monday, the Palestinian Olympic Committee accused Israel of having violated the Olympic Truce by continuing to bomb Gaza.
Others have pointed to the example of South Africa, which was barred from the 1964 Tokyo Games and later expelled from the IOC in 1970 because of apartheid, its policy of racial segregation.
Clastres said the chance of Israel being excluded during these Games is low. “The international political and legal situation is too complex, and the IOC does not want to take risks with this,” he said.
At a news briefing Tuesday, IOC chief Bach made no mention of possible sanctions on Israel. “The Olympic Games are a competition not between countries, they are competitions between athletes,” he said.
Eight athletes will represent Palestinians at the Paris Games — in taekwondo, boxing, judo, shooting, swimming and running. Most are members of the Palestinian diaspora, based outside of the Palestinian territories.
Palestinian American swimmer Valerie Tarazi, who attends Auburn University, said she got to know beach volleyball players from Gaza during the Asian Games in China — just days before the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. A week later, she said, she learned that one of those players had been killed in an Israeli bombing.
“It seems like every week we hear about other athletes or friends or family dying,” she said.
“Having to hear about that and then go to train isn’t the most fun thing to do,” Tarazi said, “but it is also the reason that I do come every single day. My way of fighting for my country is through sport, peacefully.”
Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem and Souad Mekhennet, Les Carpenter and Candace Buckner in Paris contributed to this report.
