According to Al Jazeera, France’s announcement came just days after Israel bombed a camp for displaced people in Rafah in southern Gaza.
France has banned Israeli companies from participating in this year’s annual Eurosatory arms and defence industry exhibition in Villepinte near Paris next month, the event’s organisers and French authorities have said.
The French Defence Ministry suggested that the decision was linked to Paris’s opposition to the continuing Israeli assault on Rafah in southern Gaza.
Conditions are no longer met to host Israeli companies at the show at a time when the President is calling for Israel to cease operations in Rafah, the ministry told the Reuters news agency.
Seventy-four Israeli firms were set to attend the event from June 17 to 21 at fairgrounds close to Paris’s main international airport, with Coges previously saying about 10 of them were to exhibit weapons.
Last week, a group of activists issued a legal warning and urged Coges to take measures to avoid buying and selling weapons that could be used in “crimes” committed in Gaza or other parts of occupied Palestine.
In previous weeks, France joined other Western nations in urging Israel against invading Rafah, which had become home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron also said he was “outraged” over the Israeli air raid that killed 45 people in the encampment.
At least 36,284 Palestinians have been martyred and 82,057 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.
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