Anti-Israel protests are demanding that Israel be treated like Russia at this summers Paris Olympics and that Israeli athletes compete under a neutral flag.

Russian and Belorussian athletes have been barred from competing under their national flags at the 2024 Summer Olympics as punishment for Russias 2022 invasion, which was aided by Belarus, of Ukraine. Officials from both of those countries have also been banned from the Paris Olympics.

Protesters assembled outside the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, demanding Israel receive the same punishment, citing its war in Gaza with Hamas terrorists.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas terrorists committed multiple attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking hundreds hostage. Several hostages remain with Hamas, even as the war approaches its eighth month.

Officials have resisted calls to punish Israel, with French President Emmanuel Macron telling the Associated Press earlier this month that, unlike the war in Ukraine, in which Russia attacked Ukraine, Israel did not start the war in Gaza.

We cannot say that Israel is attacking, Macron said. Israel was a victim of a terrorist attack which it is now responding to in Gaza.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said in March that there is no question about Israeli teams and athletes being allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics.

Separate Israeli and Palestinian teams are expected to compete at the Paris Olympics, which begin in July. Israel has competed at the Olympics since 1952, while a Palestinian team has competed since the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Conflicts between Israel and Palestinians have spilled into the Olympics in previous editions, infamously during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, West Germany. At those Olympics, Palestinian terrorists snuck into the Olympic village and held 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage. The incident, known as the Munich Massacre, resulted in the deaths of all 11 Israelis, along with a West German police officer, after a bid to rescue the hostages failed.

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The massacre had rarely been acknowledged at subsequent Summer Olympics, but during the opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympics in July 2021, a moment of silence was held.

Israeli athletes have also faced several instances in which athletes from countries that do not recognize Israel as a country have refused to compete against them.

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Anti-Israel protesters demand country be treated like Russia during Summer Olympics in Paris - Washington Examiner