Israeli Stands Censored From View At Paris Air Show

Walls have been erected around IAI's stand at Paris Air Show.

LE BOURGET—A day after the Israeli government gave the green light for its industry to participate in the Paris Air Show, the companies have pulled out, objecting to French limits placed on their exhibitions.

“Last night, after our booth was set up and ready for the show, we were asked to remove some of our systems from the booth,” Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) CEO Boaz Levy said in a June 16 statement. 

“We tried to negotiate with them, but it seems these orders came from the highest levels in Paris, and this morning, when we arrived at our booth, we were shocked to find out that we were blocked by black walls built overnight, which reminds us of the dark days of when Jews were segmented from European society,” Levy said.

Show organizers said they was complying with instructions from French authorities prior to the opening of the show, regarding the removal of certain equipment presented on Israeli stands.

IAI did not specify what equipment was at issue, but one official noted the Israeli stands were asked to remove certain kinetic weapons.

“We are shocked by the behavior of the Paris Air Show organizers and the French authorities who blocked our team from entering our booth,” Levy said, noting the company had been participating at the biennial gathering for decades.

Credit: Aviation Week Network

Rafael also arrived at the first day of the show to discover its exhibit stand was covered by high walls.

“We came in the morning, and this is what we found. There was no communication, nothing,” said Schlomo Toaff, the head of the Iron Dome directorate at Rafael, at an impromptu news conference in front of his stand.

A Rafael employee decided to write on the wall that ringed the stand, claiming that the blocked booth held the world’s best air defense technologies, Toaff said. But the show organizers quickly covered the writing with a new wall.

Rafael is looking into legal options to challenge the decision to seal off its booth, but Toaff does not expect a speedy resolution.

“These things tend to take time,” he said.

Rafael’s defense systems are on the front lines right now—saving lives, stopping threats, and protecting the values of the free world, Rafael CEO Yoav Tourgeman added in a later statement. 

“Covering our systems with black curtains doesn’t hide their impact—it exposes the discomfort some feel with our success. This isn’t just an insult to Israel—it’s a failure of principle. We stand proud, unhidden, and undeterred,” Tourgeman said.

Elbit Systems' stand was also blocked off. The company's CEO Bezhalel Machlis said Elbit’s “broad portfolio and the global presence of our subsidiaries—particularly in Europe—have enabled us to significantly grow our order backlog and sales in the European market in recent years. This reality is clearly unsettling to the French defense industry and the French government.”

Paris Air Show organizers said they were negotiating to see if “various parties can find a favorable outcome to the situation.”

Some French judicial officials had in the past temporarily blocked Israeli companies from participating at the Eurosatory defense show, though the issue was resolved before the event started.