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Israel's Olympic flag-carrier wrote message on bomb bound for Gaza

Peter Paltchik was also filmed disrupting a Palestine protest in Japan earlier this year
Israel's Peter Paltchik during the Tel Aviv Grand Slam Judo Championship in Tel Aviv on 19 February 2022 (Jack Guez/AFP)
Israel's Peter Paltchik during the Tel Aviv Grand Slam Judo Championship in Tel Aviv on 19 February 2022 (Jack Guez/AFP)

Pro-Palestinian campaigners have expressed outrage after it was revealed Israel's flag-carrier in the Olympics had written on a bomb bound for Gaza.

Peter Paltchik, in a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), shared an image of a bomb with his name on it along with the caption, "from me to you with pleasure", as well as "#HamasisISIS" and "#IsraelAtWar".

Paltchik, a Ukrainian-born judo champion, also provoked controversy in March when he and a group of other Israeli athletes disrupted a demonstration in Tokyo held by pro-Palestinian activists.

Demonstrators accused the athletes of trying to "pick fights with them despite being asked repeatedly to leaveโ€.

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For their part, one of the athletes said on social media that they had "entered a demonstration of Hamas supporters" to explain to them that they "did not understand anything". 

Israel's presence at the Olympics has already provoked criticism from a number of quarters, particularly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted Russia to be suspended from participation.

The Palestine Olympic Committee has called on the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to similarly exclude Israel from the games, saying that the country has also breached the Olympic Truce.

A UN General Assembly resolution mandates a global truce throughout the duration of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

In a letter to Thomas Bach, the committee said that Israel had violated the truce within the first 24 hours through its attack on Khan Younis on Monday, which killed over 70 people.

"This contravention underscores the urgent need for [IOC] and Fifa to act in line with its statutes and promote respect for international human rights law,โ€ the letter read.

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