The four main Israeli company stands at the Paris airshow have been shut down, reportedly at the orders of the French Government. This decision by France was taken after the Israeli exhibitors refused to remove some weapons from display.
The stands used by Elbit Systems, Rafael, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Uvision were covered by black walls to hide them from public view. Three smaller Israeli stands, which didn’t have hardware on display, and an Israeli Ministry of Defence stand, remained open.
An outraged Israel Aerospace Industries’ president and CEO, Boaz Levy, said the black partition walls were reminiscent of “the dark days of when Jews were segmented from European society.”
President of Israel Isaac Herzog said that he was shocked by the outrageous closure of the pavilions and said the situation should be immediately corrected.
