Ex-France basketball player Emilie Gomis forced to quit Olympics role for criticizing Israel

By Can Erozden

Former France basketball player Emilie Gomis was forced to abandon her Paris 2024 Olympics role over criticizing Israel for its war on Gaza.

"... Emilie Gomis, in a shared concern for appeasement and responsibility, wished to present her resignation from her mandate as member of the Board of Directors and ambassador of the Terre de Jeux 2024 label to Paris 2024 which takes note of this," a Paris 2024 press release read on Thursday.

The organizers said the 40-year-old could no longer continue her Paris 2024 mission as her social media post "contravened her duty of neutrality."​​​​​​​

An Olympic silver medalist for France at London 2012, Gomis also shared her regrets about her publication and apologized.

She was chosen for the Paris 2024 ambassador role in Nov. 2021.

On Instagram, she criticized Israel on Oct. 9, two days after Palestinian resistance group Hamas conducted a cross-border attack, believed to have killed 1,200 Israelis.

In an Instagram story, Gomis had posted a message showing the maps of France from 1947, 1967 and 2023 as the Israeli flag gradually covers the tricolor flag to replace it on the French territory.

"What would you do in this situation?," Gomis said.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas which Tel Aviv says killed around 1,200 people.

At least 23,357 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 59,410 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.