Attendees stroll previous the closed Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Israeli Pavillon through the fifty fifth version of the Worldwide Paris Air Present on the ParisLe Bourget Airport, in Le Bourget, suburb of Paris on June 16, 2025.
Alain Jocard | Afp | Getty Photos
The stands of not less than two main Israeli protection corporations had been blocked off to attendees on the Paris Air Present on Monday, in a transfer Israel stated was ordered by the French authorities following a dispute over the shows.
Boards had been positioned across the pavilions of corporations together with Elbit Programs and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which had been showcasing examples of navy {hardware}. The cubicles of Rafael and Uvision had been additionally shuttered, according to Reuters. CNBC has not independently verified this report.
“Final evening, simply someday earlier than the Paris Air Present opened in Le Bourget Airport, exhibition organizers appearing on behalf of the French authorities ordered the removing of offensive weapons programs from Israeli protection business pavilions — breaking with customary apply at protection exhibitions worldwide,” Israel’s Protection Ministry stated in an announcement.
The ministry stated it had informed the air present organizers that it rejected the demand, and that the convention employees responded by erecting black partitions in a single day, blocking the pavilions for the beginning of the occasion Monday.
“This outrageous and unprecedented choice reeks of policy-driven and business concerns… The French are hiding behind supposedly political concerns to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from a world exhibition – weapons that compete with French industries,” it stated.
A drone show on the Elbit Programs Ltd. zone contained in the Israel aerospace pavilion on the Paris Air Present in Paris, France, on Monday, June 16, 2025.
Nathan Laine | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
CNBC has contacted the Paris Air Present organizers and the French authorities for remark.
Israeli protection corporations have been selling new merchandise set to unveil on the Paris occasion — one of many greatest within the aviation world — equivalent to Elbit’s PAWS-2 (HR) infrared missile warning system.
Protection is a major focus in Paris this year amid geopolitical tensions and pledges for greater European safety spending, together with comparatively subdued demand by business airways to position main new orders given current backlogs.
Different protection corporations current on the present embody the U.S.’s Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, European missile producer MBDA and the Aviation Trade Company of China, whereas a whole lot of navy delegations are set to attend.
A black wall blocks off the Israel aerospace pavilions, together with Elbit Programs Ltd., on the Paris Air Present in Paris, France, on Monday, June 16, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
“Final evening, after our sales space was arrange and prepared for the present, we had been requested to take away a few of our programs from the sales space,” IAI’s President and CEO Boaz Levy stated in an announcement.
“We tried to barter with them, but it surely appears these orders got here from the very best ranges in Paris,” Levy stated, including the corporate had acquired authorization to take part within the present and complied with organizers’ requests. The IAI staff was blocked from getting into the sales space, he famous.
Levy stated he was “shocked” by the choice and alleged discrimination.
The transfer comes amid escalating battle between Israel and Iran, with deadly air strikes between the countries continuing for a fourth day on Monday. Israel launched a series of strikes Friday concentrating on areas it stated had been associated to Iran’s nuclear program, killing a number of senior navy officers.
France’s authorities and President Emmanuel Macron have in the meantime elevated their criticism of Israel over its ongoing military operation in Gaza in recent months, with a joint assertion from the UK, France and Canada in Could calling the extent of human struggling there “insupportable.”
— CNBC’s Charlotte Reed contributed to this report.