Palestinian athletes will be given the opportunity to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games without having to qualify.
Thomas Bach, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), confirmed that six to eight Palestinian athletes will be invited to participate in the Paris Games. Qualification events are currently ongoing.
“Whave made the clear commitment that even if no [Palestinian] athlete would qualify on the field of play… then the NOC [National Olympic Committee] of Palestine would benefit from invitations, like other national Olympic Committees who do not have a qualified athlete,” Bach said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
Bach added that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had always “supported in many different ways the athletes to allow them to take part in qualifications and to continue their training.”
His comments come as Israel comes under increasing pressure from around the world to ease its offensive against the Islamist group Hamas, which has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered that Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the games, although only under a neutral banner. They must also have never publicly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have no links to the country’s military or security services.
“The situation between Israel and Palestine is completely different,” Bach added. “From day one, we expressed how horrified we were, first on the seventh of October and then about the war and its horrifying consequences. We have always been very clear, as we have been with the Russian invasion in Ukraine.”
