The start of a long standoff? This is the turn that the controversy surrounding Emilie Gomis, ambassador of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, seems to be taking in the hot seat after an Instagram publication about Israel which led the Ethics Committee of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (COJO ) requested his exclusion. Except that the former basketball player has since made it known that she does not intend to “resign”, recognizing an “awkwardness” while reaffirming her desire to continue her role.
In a press release published Tuesday, Emilie Gomis’ lawyers, Maîtres William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth, write that the athlete “was at no time invited to explain herself” before the decision of the Ethics Committee, contacted by the organizers of the Paris Olympics. They add that they have already been mandated “to take any action against a possible sanction that would be taken against him”. For her part, via a press release, the former international “considers herself […] dishonored and defamed by the accusations of anti-Semitism of which she is a victim”, and she “intends to remain in the service of the values of Olympism and France as she always has.
Two days after the attacks perpetrated by Hamas in Israel on October 7, Emilie Gomis briefly published a message in which we saw maps of France from 1947, 1967 and 2023, on which the tricolor flag covering French territory is gradually replaced by the Israeli flag, with this question: “What would you do in this situation?” A publication which “clearly refers to events concerning the State of Israel and Palestine, in particular the Gaza Strip, notably the plan for the partition of Palestine by the United Nations in 1947, the War of the Six days and the vote on Resolution 242 of the United Nations Security Council in 1967,” recalled the Ethics Committee on Monday. And it “can furthermore be legitimately interpreted as suggesting that the France of 2023, whose map is dominated by the Star of David, is also invaded by Jews”.
The lawyers of the Olympic vice-champion with Les Bleues in 2012, also a member of the board of directors of Paris 2024, recall that the main person concerned had “immediately” deleted her post once “alerted about its inadequate nature”. “She recognizes today that if the post was marked by clumsiness”, because she had not “explained her approach”, “she simply sought to fuel a debate of general interest on the problem of colonization, largely documented and criticized, notably by the UN,” we can still read.
While Emilie Gomis had apologized a few weeks ago, again on Instagram, the CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France) asked that she be removed from her position as ambassador. And according to the ethics committee, its excuses “are not likely to mitigate, in this case, the seriousness of the breach noted”, knowing that the members and employees of Paris-2024 must “respect a duty of confidentiality in their public expression. It is now up to Cojo to make a decision. Knowing now that the case could not stop there and continue in court, if the former basketball player actually decides to defend herself.
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