Scandals are kept away from the current edition of the Olympic Games

The Olympics are facing a new series of controversies. Suspensions, self-suspension, wars, violation of human rights, terrorism, cyber-attacks, are jamming the most important sports competition on the planet. The Palestinian Olympic Committee has announced that it has asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to exclude the Israeli delegation from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, for violating the Olympic truce. Before taking off from Tel Aviv, four days before an opening ceremony on the Seine, under strict surveillance, the president of the Israeli Olympic Committee, Yaël Arad, expressed his full "confidence in the organization of security" for the approximately 90 athletes who they represent their country, some of whom have already arrived in France. Their protection will be provided by the GIGN, an elite unit of the national gendarmerie, according to the French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin. In Ramallah, the Palestinian Olympic Committee announced that it had formally requested the International Olympic Committee to "immediately exclude Israel from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games", arguing in particular that Israel violated the Olympic ceasefire proclaimed by the IOC by "bombing Gaza, which has caused civilian casualties". The official letter, sent to the President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, as well as to his counterpart at the International Football Federation (FIFA), Gianni Infantino, through the Palestinian Federation, "states that the IOC and FIFA have acted decisively in the past against the violation of the Olympic truce" and cites in particular "the suspension of the Russian teams by the International Olympic Committee in response to the invasion of Ukraine". Therefore, the Palestinian Committee requests that "the same rule be applied to Israel and that the teams be suspended from the Olympic Games." From Brussels, where he was participating in a European meeting, Stephane Sejourne, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared: "I wanted to say, on behalf of France, that the Israeli delegation is welcome in France for these Olympic Games." His Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, "thanked him for his welcome message to the Israeli delegation" and "for his assurances regarding the safety" of the Israeli athletes. "In the context of threats and calls for a boycott, this symbolic gesture is particularly significant," he added. The Palestinian request has little chance of being debated until the start of the OJ, but there are voices accusing the IOC leadership of judging similar cases differently.