Israeli companies will finally be allowed to participate in a French defense exhibition next week, after heavy negotiations between the Foreign Ministry and its French counterparts on Tuesday.
The crisis began on Tuesday afternoon, when the Israeli journalist Yaron Avraham of N12 News reported that eight Israeli companies were banned from participating in the exhibition in Paris.
According to his report, this decision caused “fury in Jerusalem,” with officials claiming that “there will be a very harsh response.”
A couple of hours later, the French Foreign Ministry informed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar that the decision had been reversed and that all Israeli companies would be able to participate in the exhibition.
According to reports by Avraham, one of the companies affected by the decision was in charge of developing a face recognition software used to identify terrorists in Gaza’s heavily populated areas.
France and Israel clash during defense exhibitions
This is not the first time that Israel and France have clashed over these types of problems. Back in June, a French court rejected Israel’s appeal to force the French government to give it full standard exposure at a Paris weapons technology conference.
This came after the French government decided to block off Israel’s offensive weapons display at a Paris exhibition under the cover of night between Sunday and Monday.
In October of last year, France did not allow Israeli firms that participated in combat in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon to participate in the Euronaval military exhibit in France, according to a Kan News report.
Finally, Israel was almost banned from the 2024 Eurosatory international arms fair, one of the biggest defense exhibitions in the world, after a court overturned the decision.