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The four main Israeli company stands at the Paris airshow have been shut down after exhibitors reportedly refused to remove some weapons from display.
The stands were hidden from view after pressure from the French government on the organisers of the aerospace industry event, a source told the Guardian.
The stands were used by Elbit Systems, Rafael, IAI and Uvision. Three smaller Israeli stands, which did not have hardware on display, and an Israeli Ministry of Defence stand, remain open. The airshow is taking place amid an escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Reuters reported that the instruction came from French authorities after Israeli companies failed to comply with a direction from a French security agency to remove offensive or kinetic weapons from the stands.
The show, which was first held in 1909 and is organised by the French Aerospace Industries Association, is taking place in Le Bourget, in the north-east of Paris, from Monday until Sunday.
France, a longtime ally of Israel, has gradually hardened its position on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over its actions in Gaza and military strikes abroad. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, last Friday reiterated France’s support for Israel’s right to protect itself, but in reference to its strikes on Iran he called on “all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to de-escalate”.
Israel’s defence ministry said it had rejected the order to remove some weapons systems from displays, and that exhibition organisers responded by erecting a black partition that separated the Israeli industry pavilions from others.
The ministry said: “This outrageous and unprecedented decision reeks of policy-driven and commercial considerations. The French are hiding behind supposedly political considerations to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from an international exhibition – weapons that compete with French industries.”
IAI’s president and chief executive, Boaz Levy, said the black partitions were reminiscent of “the dark days of when Jews were segmented from European society”, according to Reuters.
Earlier on Monday, images taken by the AFP agency showed yellow writing on one of the black walls around the stands. Accompanied by a drawing of an Israeli flag, it read: “Behind these walls are the best defense systems used by many countries. These systems are protecting the state of Israel these days. The French government, in the name of
discrimination, is trying to hide them from you.”
Later, the section of black wall appeared to have been replaced by a white wall.
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Two US Republican politicians attending the airshow also criticised the French move.
Talking to reporters outside the blacked-out Israeli defence stalls, the Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders described the decision as “pretty absurd”, and the Republican senator Katie Britt criticised it as “shortsighted”.
Meshar Sasson, senior vice-president at Elbit Systems, accused France of trying to stymie competition, pointing to a series of contracts that Elbit has won in Europe. “If you cannot beat them in technology, just hide them, right? That’s what it is because there’s no other explanation,” he said, according to Reuters.
Rafael described the French move as “unprecedented, unjustified, and politically motivated”.
The airshow’s organiser said it was in talks to try to help “the various parties find a favourable outcome to the situation”.
