TEL AVIV, Israel — Whatever happens, Israeli athletes will be ready when the Paris Olympics officially open on 26 July.

A senior Israeli sports official said they are preparing their athletes for possible protests, boycotts and discrimination that would be launched by Palestine supporters in the Summer Games that will open at Seine River on 26 July.

Israel will be sending a solid team of 87 athletes in the Summer Games.

Leading the charge will be gymnasts Artem Dolgopyat, the reigning Olympic champion who also serves as the biggest threat to Carlos Yulo’s bid in the men’s all-around title of the Games.

Also listed in the vaunted Israeli squad are those from judo, sailing, archery, shooting, athletics, fencing, equestrian and football, who are being celebrated for making their first ever Olympic appearance since 1976 in Montreal.

But the road to glory will not be easy for the Israelis.

Pro-Palestine supporters, for one, are expected to wage some protests to call for their banishment from the Summer Games.

In fact, some of them already made their presence felt when they gathered in front of the headquarters of the Paris Olympics organizers last May to call for the reduction of Israel’s participation in the Summer Games due to its involvement in the war in Gaza Strip that led to the death of more than 3,500 Palestinians, most of them members of the Hamas terror group.

They cited the example of Russian and Belarusian athletes who were banned from donning their national colors following their invasion of Ukraine last year.

The European Muslim Forum (EMF) also issued an ultimatum to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) calling for the complete expulsion of Israel from the Olympics.

“Either Israel is excluded from the Olympic Games, or the Paris Olympic Games will face a total boycott alongside Israel,” EMF member Nkosi Mandela, grandson of South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, said in his letter delivered to the IOC members in its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Still, the Israelis will be ready.

“Boycott? Protests? We’re prepared for it. We know how to deal with some disturbances during the Games,” Muli Epstein, director of Science and Innovation of the Israel Olympic Committee, told DAILY TRIBUNE in a visit at their headquarters here recently.

“We’re holding workshops with our athletes and our psychologists just to prepare them how to behave when such things happen.”

He said their instruction to their athletes is clear: Respond to their questions — and react to their bashes — by winning medals for Israel.

“The most important thing that we told them is to win for the state of Israel. If you win this is the best answer to everybody — just to win,” he said.

Israel’s participation in the Summer Games has a dark and painful past.

In the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, 11 Israeli athletes were killed in a deadly attack carried out by Palestinian terrorists inside the Athletes Village.

Branded as the “Black September,” the massacre left a deep scar in the Olympic movement, prompting organizers to observe a moment of silence during the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.

Israelis also suffered cold reception from their neighbors when they were booted out in the Asian Games in 1976. Now, they are competing in the 50-nation European Games.

‘Sometimes, the media is making a big issue against Israel because of what happened in judo in the past. They didn’t want to shake his hands.’

But the most glaring form of discrimination to Israeli athletes happened in the Rio Olympics when El Shahaby of Egypt refused to shake the hand of Or Sasson after losing in their men’s 100-kilogram event in the judo competition.

But Lustig is unbothered.

“Sometimes, the media is making a big issue against Israel because of what happened in judo in the past. They didn’t want to shake his hands,” he said.

“I said ‘okay, who cares?’ First of all, it’s not in the law. In judo, you just have to bow — no need to shake their hands. If you don’t want to shake an Israeli hand, it’s okay, no problem with me.”

“We’ll not be there to collect flags. We have to perform. That’s the most important thing: The competition — to perform and be focused. All the other things are not important,” he said.

“Winning is the best message for them. Otherwise, you are not focused.”