A group of protesters chanted “Heil Hitler” and did the Nazi salute from the stands during the Israel-Paraguay soccer match at the Paris Olympics on July 27.
The protesters chanted and booed the Israeli team while waving Palestinian flags. The Paris prosecutor’s office and other relevant authorities received reports of “aggravated incitement to racial hatred” and “incitement to discrimination” at the Parc des Princes stadium.
Multiple spectators held large signs that read “genocide Olympics.” A banner “bearing a political message was displayed and antisemitic gestures were made,” Paris 2024 organizers wrote in a statement.
The demonstrators were promptly removed from the stadium and no further antisemitic incidents reportedly occurred, according to The Jerusalem Post. Paris 2024 “strongly condemns these acts,” and added that the Olympic committee filed a complaint, which is pending investigation.
“Paris 2024 is committed to combating all forms of discrimination, which are in every way contrary to the Olympic and Paralympic values. We would like to remind everyone that the Games are a time for harmony and tolerance,” the statement read.
Robert J. Williams, the executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research, condemned the demonstration.
“Saturday’s grotesque displays of crowds chanting ‘Heil Hitler’ while making the Nazi salute during Saturday’s Israel-Paraguay soccer game — the second act of intimidation aimed at Israel’s soccer players in as many games during the Paris Olympics — betrays the sad truth that anti-Jewish hatred has thrived and grown in the months since October 7,” Williams wrote in a statement.
He brought in historical context about antisemitic rhetoric in France and the sometimes fatal violence that has taken place against France’s Jewish community — antisemitic attacks increased by four times in 2023, nearly 60% of which involved physical violence, threatening words or menacing gestures, according to a report by i24NEWS.
“These Olympic games should help define a world that rejects all forms of hatred, including the world’s oldest hate. It is not too late. We should support all Olympians for their contributions to sport, we should eschew hatred in all its forms, and we should never forget that violence against Jews is also a sad part of the history of the Olympics, be it in 1936, 1972, or after,” Williams wrote.
