The Paris Olympic Games kicked off on 26 July with a parade through the Seine River in Paris. Among the participating countries are the delegations of Israel, Palestine and Ukraine. A total of 15 Russian athletes and 17 Belarussians emerged on behalf of the Neutral Individual Athletes Group (AIN), which has been the way in which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has offered them to participate, following the expulsion of their respective national Olympic committees. The COP argues that: "By desecration of an Olympic truce, invasion of Ukraine at the Beijing Olympic Games 2022" and "by violation of the Olympic Charter in taking possession of facilities controlled by the Ukrainian Olympic Committee".

On the day following the inauguration, an Israeli air attack on a school in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, resulted in 30 Palestinians killed and nearly 100 wounded in the centre of the capital. In Ukraine, the Russian Army continued its progress in the Kharkiv region, attacking three electrical installations. The Olympic truce came into force on 19 July, when a ceasefire took place.

This is the atmosphere of the Paris Games 2024, which has led the French Government to extend the security mechanism because of the risk of attack. Jules Boykoff, a professor at the Pacific University of the United States and an expert at the Olympic Games, explained that "the security forces are everywhere, the police forces circulate around the city, many of them with assault rifles and weapons of military use, some with camouflage uniform, others with blue police uniform."

The exhibition of Simone Biles and surprises such as the gold that France has won in rugby have made the public stand, especially in the face of Israeli attacks on Gaza. The phrase "genocide is not an Olympic sport" was heard at the demonstration convened in Paris on the eve of the inaugural event and at the football meeting between Paraguay and Israel a banner with the slogan "Olympic genocide" was displayed, along with several Palestinian flags. French Justice is investigating these mobilisations, which are charged with a crime of "provocation to racial hatred". According to Boykoff, "security has been much more compact in those protests than in other Olympic Games I've been at."

They have also wanted to show the attitude of some sportsmen and women towards these conflicts, which in some cases affect their respective countries. Waseem Abu Sal, a Palestinian flagship at the Paris Games, wore a shirt to denounce the bombings of Palestinian children during the inaugural ceremony. The Palestinian swimmer Yazan Al Bawwab went out to the Olympic pool with his fist up and the Palestinian flag fluttering on his chest. The Algerian judoka Messaud Dris, for his part, is being investigated for offering a much lower weight than allowed in its category and for not presenting himself to the battle against the Israeli Tohar Butbul, which was rejected. His compatriots and judoka Fethi Nourine were sentenced to ten years in prison for refusing to compete at the previous Tokyo Olympic Games with Tohar Bulambul, the organization said. That is why we have to look at the decision that NOVA is going to take.

This case does not coincide with that of the Ukrainian fencing Olga Kharlan, who has just won the bronze medal in Paris after being sanctioned in the 2023 World Cup for refusing to greet his Russian rival. On that occasion, the IOC President himself, Thomas Bach, sent him a letter expressing his support and his desire to receive a personal invitation to participate in Paris, regardless of the punishment of the International Federation of Fencing (FIE). After that letter, the FIE withdrew the sanction and had no problems participating in the Olympic Games. "This is for the athletes of my country, who have not been able to be here because Russia killed them," said Klein, who got the bronze in his hand.

Neutrality in doubt

Bach's support for Olga Klein broke with the neutrality proclaimed by the COP, applied in Tokyo 2020 with the Judoca Fethi Nourine. This doctrine based on independence between sport and politics contributed to maintaining the ILS amid the great political tension during the Cold War. In the Paris Games, however, it has lost its meaning if we consider how the IOC has acted in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

In February 2022, the IOC "strongly" condemned the violation of the Russian Olympic ceasefire by the invasion of Ukraine during the 2022 Beijing Games and confirmed the suspension of the Russian and Belarussian Olympic Committee last October. Subsequently, it set up a committee composed of Nicole Hoevertsz, vice-president of the IOC, Pau Gasol, member of the Ethical Committee and Seung Min Ryu, representative of the Athletes’ Committee. This Committee specified the Russian and Belarusian athletes who qualify to be part of the Individual Neutral Athletes team to be in Paris. In order to be admitted, the following requirements have been necessary: to obtain the classification of individual athletes, not to belong to the army of their country and not to have given public protection to the army.

In the case of Israel, however, the IOC took no decision in response to the 7 October attacks in Hamas on Gaza. Nor did it change its position when the International Court of Justice issued a ruling in January warning that there was a "real risk of genocide" and in March a UN report concluded that "there are reasonable reasons to believe that Israel has reached that point of declaring that it has committed genocide." When asked about this, Thomas Bach himself has just said: "We're not in the business of politics, we're here to fulfill our mission of bringing athletes together."

The mission of bringing together athletes is also questioned if the number of 350 Palestinian athletes donated by the Palestinian Olympic Committee (POPs) is taken into account. These victims include Hasni al-Masdar, the coach of the Palestinian Olympic football team, or Majed Abu Maraheel, the first Olympic flagship in the history of Palestine, killed by malnutrition in the Al Nuseirat refugee camp. Israel has also destroyed much of the sports facilities in the Gaza Strip and has done so with the stadium of Yarmouk, one of the oldest in Palestine, as a detention centre.

"The war situation in Ukraine is special and cannot be compared to any other war or conflict in the world, because the measures taken and the recommendations adopted by the IOC are a consequence of the invasion of the Russian Army at the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Games," the ONN explained.

The firmness shown to Russia by the largest Olympic body has prevented its belligerence from being bleached in Paris through the practice of its sportsmen. On the contrary, the "neutrality" shown by Israel in the face of the attacks has facilitated the exercise of Sportwashing, which allows 88 Israeli athletes to participate in the Olympic Games. Egyptian journalist Karim Zidan has said that at least 30 of them have "covered" the Israeli armed forces and the invasion of Gaza.