Paris, July 24 (RHC)-- Israeli team is set to participate in the Paris Olympics starting Friday after the French government as well as the International Olympic Committee turned down calls to ban the team over the genocidal war on Gaza.
Netizens have been fuming at the body responsible for organizing the Olympic Games and Emmanuel Macron's government for allowing “mass murderers” to participate in the marquee sports competition.
According to reports, the flag-bearer of the Israeli contingent at the Paris Olympics will be Peter Paltchik, a Ukrainian-born Israeli judoka who competes in the under-100 kg weight category. Social media users have pointed out that Paltchik, a former European champion, was one of those who signed bomb shells aimed at Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, after the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged territory in October 2023, Paltchik shared a photo of munitions signed by him.
“From me to you with pleasure,” he wrote in the tweet, which stirred up the hornet’s nest.
Leyla Hamed, a sports journalist based in the UK, said the presence of Israeli athletes such as Paltchik “is going to make this Olympics (in Paris) to be remembered as the Genocide Games.”
Hamed hastened to add that Paltchik was part of the judo team that disrupted a pro-Palestinian protest in Japan and harassed protestors while wearing his Olympic uniform. “Does this represent the @Olympics spirit?” she asked.
Her tweets came in response to a post by the Israeli Olympic team on July 5 stating that Paltchik and Andi Murez would be flagbearers for the Israeli contingent at the Paris Olympics.
Max Blumenthal, a US-based journalist and editor of the Grayzone website, responding to Hamed’s tweet wrote that Israel “seldom wins gold because there are no Olympic competitions in slaughtering masses of children and manipulating Western political hacks.”
Kieran Cunningham, the chief sports writer for the Irish Daily Star, also reacted to Paltchik being the Israeli team’s flagbearer at the Paris Olympics, calling it a “disgrace.” “It is a disgrace that apartheid Israel are allowed to take part in the Olympics,” he wrote.
Anita Rama, an Algerian activist, also took to X to introduce Israel’s Olympic 2024 flagbearer to her followers. “Here is Peter Paltchik, the standard bearer of the Israeli Olympic delegation, best known for having signed and autographed bombs intended to massacre Palestinian children in particular,” she wrote.
“These are not the Olympics of sportsmanship but of genocide and shame.”
The 2024 Paris Olympics is scheduled to take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024 in France.
Pro-Palestine campaigners are expected to stage a protest at the Parc des Princes stadium when the Israel men’s football team plays Mali in an opening tie in the Olympic Games in Paris.
