French authorities shut down the main Israeli company stands at the Paris Air Show after they refused to remove attack weapons from display.
Stands including those of Elbit Systems, Rafael, IAI and UVision were blocked off with black partitions before the start of the world’s biggest aviation trade fair on Monday. Smaller Israeli stands which didn’t have hardware on display remained open, along with one for the Israeli Ministry of Defence.
The Israeli defence ministry denounced the decision as “scandalous”.
The row follows a failed legal attempt by campaigners to have the Israeli stands barred from the show, which is the world’s largest display of aerial defence and civilian aviation technology.
The president of the left wing-led Seine-Saint-Denis département council joined MPs from the district, which is home to the show, to boycott the opening ceremony in protest against any Israeli presence at the event because of the country’s offensive in Gaza.
The Israeli defence ministry said: “This unilateral action was carried out in the middle of the night after the stands were set up by our staff. Israel denounces a measure that is both political and commercial, concluding that it aims to bar its defence industries from the European market”.
It added: “France is hiding behind political considerations to exclude systems which are direct rivals with its own technologies”.
Nine Israeli firms are in attendance with displays of surveillance aircraft, tactical drones and precision missile interception systems.
François Bayrou, the French prime minister, said all exhibitors had been told before the show that offensive weapons would be prohibited from display, saying that the Israeli embassy in Paris had agreed to this. He added that the companies would be allowed to resume their exhibits if they complied with this requirement.
Bayrou told reporters that, given France’s diplomatic stance, and “in particular its … very great concern about Gaza”, the government had felt it unacceptable for attack weapons to be on show.
The closure of the defence stands was requested by one of France’s state security agencies, officials said.
Relations between Israel and France have become strained over the past two months since President Macron shifted to a more critical position over the Gaza offensive.