It is unlikely that any team has ever arrived at an Olympics the way the men’s soccer team of Israel rolled up to the Parc de Princes on Wednesday night.
Police vans led the way, dozens of them filled with squads of French riot police and surrounded by a phalanx of officers on motorcycles.
Then came more vans, more police outriders, more sirens — a stunning show of force with one task: to protect the first Israeli participants to take the field of play in the Paris Games.
The security of Israel’s team at the Olympics — any Olympics — has been a critical issue since the killing of 11 athletes and coaches at the Munich Games in 1972.
The ongoing war in Gaza and the global protests that have accompanied it have made the Paris Games perhaps the most fraught sporting event featuring Israeli athletes in the half-century since then.
Persons:
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Organizations:
Princes, Police, Games, Paris Games, Olympics, Munich Games
Locations:
Israel, Gaza