France walls off Israeli weapons exhibit at Paris Air Show

Israel’s Defense Ministry called the move “outrageous” and “ugly.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The French organizers behind the biggest aviation trade show of the year walled off Israel’s exhibits hours before the opening on Monday in a move Jerusalem called “outrageous” and “ugly.”

First, acting on government orders, the French demanded that the four Israeli companies pull their offensive weapons systems from the Paris Air Show, after the exhibits had already been set up.

When the Israel Defense Ministry flatly refused to do so, the organizers set up black walls around the booths “in the middle of the night,” as the ministry noted, blocking them off from the other pavilions.

Displays by other countries, including such bastions of human rights as Turkey and China, were not treated in such a fashion.

In a furious statement, the ministry said, “This outrageous and unprecedented decision reeks of policy-driven and commercial considerations. This comes at a time when Israel is fighting a necessary and just war to eliminate the nuclear and ballistic threat facing the Middle East, Europe, and the entire world.”

“The French are hiding behind supposedly political considerations to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from an international exhibition – weapons that compete with French industries,” it added. “This is particularly striking given Israeli technologies’ impressive and precise performance in Iran.”

The ministry called on the French government and the organizers to “reverse this ugly and improper action, remove the black segregation walls from the Israeli pavilions, and allow Israeli industries to display their systems like all other participants in the exhibition.”

In response, Paris Air Show officials told the FranceInfo radio network, “Dialogue is underway so that the various parties can find a favorable outcome to the situation.”

French displeasure with Israel has steadily increased as the war against the Hamas terror organization in Gaza continues, with President Emmanuel Macron castigating Jerusalem for not allowing in enough humanitarian aid and threatening sanctions against the Jewish state.

In October, he tried to ban Israeli companies from exhibiting at Euronaval, an international naval weapons exhibition, just a few weeks before the event.

A French court struck down the attempt, but only a few of the 12 Israeli companies that had planned to display their wares managed to participate due to the ruling only being made shortly before the opening.