“Rich Olympics”, “Nothing to be proud of”… A thousand people demonstrated in Marseille this Wednesday, condemning the Olympic Games with harmful social and environmental consequences and demanding the exclusion of Israel, as was the case with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
“The Olympic Games, with their capitalist and neoliberal logic driving them, will inevitably have disastrous consequences for the host cities and certain categories of the population,” Antoine, one of the demonstrators, told AFP as hundreds of boats greeted the Olympic torch, delivered from Greece, in Marseille harbor on the three-masted ship “Belen”.
A call launched by several teams
The young man, who did not want to give his last name, saying he feared reprisals from his employer or intimidation from the police, was responding to a call for a demonstration launched by several groups wanting to “show that we can have a public holiday in the name of sport, without exploitation, oppression or destruction.”
“The Olympics and their atrocities are a system, in terms of gentrification, policing public space, deprivation of the city’s property,” Felix Treger, a member of the La Quadrature du Net association, lamented at a press briefing the day before.
“There is also the problem of illegal workers exploited on construction sites. From an environmental perspective, organizing surfing events in Polynesia and going on tours to coral reefs is problematic,” Simon Durand, a 23-year-old student from Marseille, said in the procession.
“There are many things that make me hate, and in particular the fact that students are being kicked out of the Crous (Regional Center for University and School Works) hostels to accommodate tourists,” adds one of his friends Adam, adding: “We are not proud . »
Demonstrators demand Israel’s exclusion from the Olympics
As part of the demonstration, banners and slogans also called for Israel to be excluded from the Olympic Games, while the Israeli army continues its operations in the Gaza Strip and truce talks between Israel and Hamas take place in Cairo.
“During apartheid, the International Olympic Committee excluded South African teams from the Olympic Games. So we are asking the same thing because of the situation in occupied Palestine,” Juliette Simon, coordinator of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign in France, explained to AFP.
The attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement in southern Israel on October 7 killed more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data. In response, Israel launched a military operation in Gaza that has so far killed 34,844 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.
Source: Le Parisien
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a keen interest in sports and have written for many different publications. I am currently working as an author at 24 News Recorder. I cover mostly sports news but also write about other topics such as current affairs and politics. I have a strong interest in social media and how it can be used to engage with audiences.
