The French government has announced that Israel will not be allowed to send a delegation to Paris for an upcoming defence exhibition.
Jerusalem will not be allowed to send government representatives or set up a national stall at the Eurosatory event, which will take place at the Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition centre on June 15-18.
Israeli defence firms will be allowed to attend individually, but will only be permitted to display air defence technology, with a ban on exhibiting any offensive weaponry.
Israel’s Defence Ministry called the decision “disgraceful” and a “political and commercial calculation”.
It also accused Paris of acting “in direct violation of the established norms governing international defence exhibitions... [and] in direct contradiction to the principles it claims to uphold” and “repeatedly choosing the wrong side of history”.
It comes after Israeli companies were blocked from exhibiting their products at last year’s Paris Air Show, with their stalls blocked by a large black barrier erected by organisers after reportedly refusing a similar request to remove “offensive weapons” from their displays.
A spokesperson for the French foreign ministry said at the time: “From the beginning, we gave clear instructions that were conveyed to the Israelis, namely: a ban on the display of offensive weapons at the Bourget exhibition.”
The ministry claimed that the Israeli embassy had agreed to these terms, but this has subsequently been denied by Israeli diplomatic sources, according to the Times of Israel.
But Israel’s defence ministry accused the French of “hiding behind supposedly political considerations to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from an international exhibition – weapons that compete with French industries”.
The motivation for the ban was not clear, but attendees of the show – a major trade show frequented by the defence industry – reported that stalls assembled by firms from Turkey, China and other nations were allowed to appear freely, with only Israeli exhibits blocked off.
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