(Tel Aviv) Israel will participate in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games on the Seine in Paris, the president of the Israeli Olympic committee assured AFP on Thursday, being hopeful that the French authorities will be able to ensure security.
For the first time, an Olympic opening ceremony will be held outside an Olympic stadium.
This parade of delegations on the Seine in the center of Paris represents a security headache.
“We will be there”, “Israel will be at the opening ceremony”, assured Yael Arad during an interview with AFP in Tel Aviv, granted a little more than six months before the Games (July 26-11 august).
The former judokate, silver medalist at the Barcelona Games in 1992, said she was convinced that the French authorities “will do everything they can to ensure that this event is safe”, for “all athletes, not just the Israelis.”
The Israeli delegation “will stay in the Olympic village”, like “any other delegation”, she added.
Concerns about the security of the Games have been revived in recent months after several attacks on French soil, including one on the banks of the Seine, and after the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
This war was triggered on October 7 by attacks in southern Israel by commandos from the Palestinian Islamist movement which caused the death, on the Israeli side, of some 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count from official Israeli data.
In Gaza, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, nearly 24,620 people, the vast majority women and minors, have died since October 7.
“We always remember what can happen,” says Mme Arad, in response to a question about the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes by a Palestinian commando at the Munich Games. Eleven hostages were killed.
She also warned against any “discrimination against Israeli athletes” in the sporting field.
Before reversing its decision, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) recently announced the exclusion of Israel from its World Championships, citing security reasons.