Palestine Olympic Committee president Jibril Rajoub speaks during a send-off ceremony for the Palestine delgation to the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES

On the eve of the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Palestine Olympic Committee has accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of "double standards" in its decision to allow Israel to compete.

In June, the president of the Palestine Olympic Committee Jibril Rajoub called for Israel to be banned from the 2024 Paris Olympics over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza citing rules in the Olympic Charter.

As Israel's Olympic delegation arrived in Paris at the start of the week, growing international outrage over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza has led Palestinian and Iranian contingents, as well as others, to double down on calls to ban all Israeli athletes from participating.

Rajoub this week sent a letter to the IOC demanding a boycott which was rejected by the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach.

"This confirms that there are international institutions that insist on applying double standards and not adhering to the Olympic Charter, laws and regulations, or morals," said Rajoub.

"The Israelis or the Israeli Olympic Committee have lost the moral, sports, humanitarian and legal right to participate” while referring to Israel's ongoing bombardment of Gaza as "crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing".

Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in Hamas-run Gaza after Israel launched a retaliatory military campaign in response to the Hamas-led attack in October 2023.



This death toll reportedly includes around 400 Palestinian athletes while those hoping to compete at the upcoming Olympic Games have been unable to train or travel due to the Israeli offensive.

Many calls to ban Israel have cited sanctions that have forbidden Russia from participating following the Kremlin's ongoing attempt to annex Ukraine.

The International Olympic Committee has in the past denied violation of the Olympic Charter instead stressing the relationship between Israeli and Palestinian Olympic Committees.

"We have two National Olympic Committees, that is the difference with the world of politics, and in this respect, both have been living in peaceful co-existence," said the head of the international Olympics body, Thomas Bach.

"We are not in the political business, we are there to accomplish our mission to get the athletes together."