French court bans Israeli delegations and companies from Eurosatory arms exhibition

A French court ordered on Saturday a ban on Israeli delegates, intermediaries, and companies from attending an international arms exhibition, according to one of the petitioners, extending a previous decision by the French Defense Ministry prohibiting an Israeli booth.

Palestinian NGO Al-Haq, which petitioned the Bobigny District Court along with a coalition of 50 NGOs and civil society organizations, said that the judge had ruled in favor of the June 6 injunction arguing that the welcoming and involvement of Israeli companies and delegates to Eurosatory 2024 could facilitate alleged breaches of international law by the Israeli military.

The Bobigny court ordered the decision to be posted at the entrances to the Monday to Thursday exhibition, said Al-Haq.

"The action sought effective measures to prevent Israeli arms companies and their subsidiaries from attending Eurosatory to sell their technologies when the Israeli army is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and what the International Court of Justice has qualified as plausible genocide," Al-Haq said.

The Pro-Palestinian NGOs said that they had been unsatisfied with the May 31 decision by the French Defense Ministry to ban Israeli stands, since several of the 74 Israel arms companies that had been set to attend the exhibition by being present at the stands of other companies, subsidiaries, and affiliates. They also sought to prevent Israelis from attending the show to purchase arms.

Rejecting arguments for Israeli attendance 

The court had reportedly rejected all of the exhibition organizer Coges Events' arguments that the NGOs lacked standing and that the exhibition was not a commercial sales fair.

Al-Haq touted the legal victory as setting a precedent for private French companies and their potential contribution to alleged international crimes.

Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS), one of the petitioners, had on Friday announced a mass demonstration outside the arms expo to call for an end to all arms trade with Israel. AFPS had not appeared to cancel the rally in light of the court ruling.

Combat Antisemitism CEO Sacha Roytman decried the court ruling, arguing that most Israeli technologies are designed to protect civilians and minimize collateral damage. He also argued that Israeli companies were being banned for defending their country in the wake of the October 7 Massacre, and only banning Jewish companies was antisemitic.

"Banning Jewish companies simply because Israel is defending itself against the largest attack on Jews since the Holocaust is blatant antisemitism. Today, Israel is at the forefront of the war between Western values and radical Islamism. Countries will soon need to learn from Israel how to combat terrorism effectively," Roytman said on Social media. "The Holocaust began with laws against Jews. Today, it starts again with laws and courts authorizing the boycott of the only Jewish state. In 1933, no one believed it would lead to the Holocaust and World War II, yet it happened."

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) had also decried the original Defense Ministry decision to limit Israeli companies, arguing on June 3 that the republic was capitulating to a few thousand demonstrators in a show of hypocrisy.

"How can we justify not welcoming companies from a democratic allied country when exhibitors from countries far removed from the defense of human rights will be present, such as China or Turkey?" said CRIF.