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Olympics Ambassador, Accused of Antisemitism, Could Lose 2024 Paris Role Over Israel-Hamas Post
France’s Emilie Gomis celebrates silver medal with her family during victory ceremony at the North Greenwich Arena during the London 2012 Olympic Games, Aug. 11, 2012. Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar
The board of the Paris 2024 Olympics organizers will hold an urgent meeting on Wednesday to address a controversy linked to a social media post about the Gaza war made by Olympics ambassador Emilie Gomis, a former French national basketball player.
On Oct. 9, two days after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, Gomis posted an Instagram story which showed maps of France being gradually covered by the flag of Israel, accompanied by a question that read “What would you do in this situation?”
Critics accused the former basketball player of antisemitism and supporting Hamas’ massacre of Israelis, which Gomis strongly denied.
The controversy surrounding Gomis, a retired Franco-Senegalese athlete who had played for France for over 10 years, winning a Euro title in 2009, is the latest thorny issue to face the Games, which is already beset by geopolitical strains from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
“I have scheduled an administrative board meeting for today to decide on this issue,” Paris 2024 head Tony Estanguet told France Inter radio.
“It’s an important subject, because all the representatives of Paris 2024 today have a responsibility to appease and welcome all nations, because we will host the world from July 26,” he added.
Gomis has since issued an apology.
“The accusations of antisemitism I am facing are in total contradiction with the values that were instilled in me and that sport taught me,” Gomis said in a later social media post, apologizing to “those who felt hurt.” Reuters could not immediately reach her for comment.
Her Instagram account currently has 17.7 thousand followers.
Paris 2024 said it wanted a joyous and safe Olympics for all, but organizers are worried that the event could get caught up in politics amid continuing wars in Gaza and Ukraine and France’s own internal security challenges.
“It’s obvious that the international context is particularly tense today,” Estanguet said. He had brought the Gomis case to the ethics committee which last month stated Gomis’ post constituted “a serious breach … of the ethical obligations.”
A decision after the board meeting was expected later on Wednesday.
The post Olympics Ambassador, Accused of Antisemitism, Could Lose 2024 Paris Role Over Israel-Hamas Post first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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