Air defence shows are delicate procedures choreographed with military precision. The messy business of war is glossed over with slick presentations, formal attire, and contracts announced in the sober atmosphere of a clinically clean exhibition hall.
This has long been the protocol for the Paris Air Show – one of the world’s largest defence and aerospace trade fairs. Political drama is, normally, kept outside the secured perimeter.
But formalities frayed this year, as attention was drawn towards several booths that have become the centre of a diplomatic brouhaha. As Euractiv browsed the air-conditioned aisles, a few stands stood out – not for their montage of cutting-edge warfare tech but instead the lack of any exhibit at all.
Concealed behind two-metre black and white panels, the stands of several Israeli exhibitors have been kept from view. Their products – air defence systems tested and used against Hamas, and now Iran – have fallen foul of a French government ban on Israeli offensive military equipment.
The companies implicated were quick to express their frustration. A representative of Rafael, which makes Israel's Iron Dome, informed a group of reporters that France had politicised the company's presence.
“There was no communication, nobody told us that we would be shut out from our display,” Schlomo Toaff, head of the air defence strategy at Rafael, told Euractiv. The move from the French authorities is surprising, he said, given that only a couple of days ago French judges approved Israel’s participation, rejecting a boycott requested by civil society associations.
Tensions rose as one Rafael employee wrote on a palisade: “These are the best air defence systems in the world”. He was escorted away by security and the protest was covered over. "A fine display of democracy by the French," Toaff quipped.
This isn't the first time that Israeli companies have been the centre of debate at French defence trade shows. Since Tel Aviv launched its all-out offensive on terrorist group Hamas – a campaign that has displaced millions of people and prevented access to humanitarian aid – questions have been raised about the participation of Israeli companies in Eurosatory and Euronaval, two other defence trade shows in France, where weapons used in Gaza were not allowed on display.
