LE BOURGET, France/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -France has shut down the four main Israeli company stands at the Paris Airshow for apparently displaying offensive weapons, in a move condemned by Israel that highlights the growing tensions between the traditional allies.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday that the instruction came from French authorities after Israeli firms failed to comply with a direction from a French security agency to remove offensive or kinetic weapons from the stands.
A spokesperson for Gifas, the show’s organiser, said some stands were closed, but declined to comment further.
Three smaller Israeli stands, which didn’t have hardware on display, and an Israeli Ministry of Defence stand, remain open.
France and Israel, traditionally close allies, have had frosty relations in recent months with French President Emmanuel Macron increasingly critical over Israel’s war in Gaza.
Following Israel’s missile strikes on Iran on Friday, Macron said Iran bore a heavy responsibility for destabilising the Middle East, but also urged Israel to show restraint.
Israel’s defence ministry said it had categorically rejected the order to remove some weapons systems from displays, and that exhibition organisers responded by erecting a black wall that separated the Israeli industry pavilions from others.
This action, it added, was carried out in the middle of the night after Israeli defence officials and companies had already finished setting up their displays.
“This outrageous and unprecedented decision reeks of policy-driven and commercial considerations,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The French are hiding behind supposedly political considerations to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from an international exhibition – weapons that compete with French industries.”
(Reporting by Paul Sandle, Tim Hepher and Steven Scheer. Editing by Mark Potter)
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