With big goals and gambles, Paris aims to reset the Olympics with audacious Games and a wow opening

PARIS (AP) — Paris has long been a city of dreamers: Just look at the Eiffel Tower, for decades the world's loftiest structure. Audacity also underpins the French capital's plans for its first Olympic Games in a century, which open Friday with an opening ceremony for the ages.

The most sprawling and elaborate Olympic opening ever — a gala spectacular Friday evening on the River Seine that even French President Emmanuel Macron says initially felt like “a crazy and not very serious idea” — kicks off 16 days of competition that promise to be ground-breaking, with nearly every corner of the city hosting some aspect of competition.

After two toned-down, pandemic-hampered Olympics, expect a bold celebration. The heady marriage of sports and France's world-renowned capital of fashion, gastronomy and culture could also help secure the Olympics' longer-term future.

Olympic organizers were struggling to find suitable host cities for their flagship Summer Games when they settled on Paris in 2017, enticed by its promise of innovations and the potential for the city of romance to rekindle love for the Olympics, especially with younger audiences that have so many other entertainment options.

But Paris' challenges are huge, too.

The city that has been repeatedly struck by deadly extremist attacks has to safeguard 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors. The international context of wars in Ukraine and Gaza add layers of complication for the gargantuan security effort. French elite special forces are part of the security detail for Israel's delegation.

Still, if all goes well, Paris hopes to be remembered as a before-and-after Olympic watershed.

The first Games with nearly equal numbers of men and women, an advance that's been a long time coming since 22 women first got accepted as Olympians 124 years ago, also in Paris, will take another step toward aligning the Olympics with the post-#MeToo world.

Paris also hopes to reassure climate-conscious Generations Z and beyond by staging Games that are less polluting, more sustainable and more socially virtuous than their predecessors. Many of the sports venues are temporary, because Paris didn't want to repeat the mistake of previous Olympic host cities that built new arenas and then had no use for them.

With iconic Paris monuments as backdrops — beach volleyball in the Eiffel Tower's shadow — and breakdancing added to a growing list of Olympic sports that target young audiences, expect plenty of viral moments on Instagram, TikTok and elsewhere.

Crowds will be back for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic forced Tokyo to push back its Games to 2021 and keep spectators away, and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022, when China was locked down.

Prize-winning French theater director Thomas Jolly is turning central Paris into an open-air stage for the opening ceremony that will run through sunset and showcase France, its people and their history. The 330-meter-tall (1,083-foot-tall) Eiffel Tower will surely feature prominently.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including 320,000 paying and invited ticket-holders, are expected to line the Seine's banks as athletes are paraded along the river on boats.

During the extravaganza, a no-fly zone extending for 150 kilometers (93 miles) around the capital will close Paris' skies, policed by fighter jets, airspace-monitoring AWACS surveillance flights, surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry sharpshooters and drone-disabling equipment.

Showcasing and celebrating Paris could be joyously cathartic for the city that was plunged into mourning by extremist attacks in 2015.

Guesses about the identity of the person or people who might get the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron include soccer icon Zinedine Zidane and other French sporting heroes, but also survivors of Islamic State-group gunmen and suicide bombers who killed 130 people on Nov. 13, 2015.

Paris is also taking gambles in hopes of leaving an indelible impression on the Olympics’ global audience of billions.

The decision not to stage the opening ceremony in the traditional setting of France's biggest stadium — the Stade de France that was among the 2015 attackers' targets and is now the venue for Olympic track and field and rugby sevens — and to host skateboarding, archery and other sports in temporary arenas in the heart of Paris have made safeguarding the Games more complex.

Rights campaigners and Games critics worry about the broad scope and scale of Olympic security, including the use of AI-equipped surveillance technology.

The furthest venue is on the other side of the world in the French Pacific territory of Tahiti, where Olympic surfers will compete on famously giant waves that first form in storm belts off Antarctica.

Up to 45,000 police and gendarmes, plus 10,000 soldiers, are safeguarding Paris and its suburbs that together are hosting most of the 32 sports that will crown Olympic champions in 329 medal events. The gold, silver and bronze medals they’ll hand out are inlaid with a hexagonal, polished chunk of iron taken from the Eiffel Tower.

The Seine's banks and riverside roads and more than a dozen of its bridges were fenced off nine days ahead of the opening ceremony, creating a no-go zone for people who haven't applied in advance for passes and making it tough for Parisians and visitors to get around and see the sights in the city of 2 million. Owners of restaurants and other businesses inside the security fence are howling about fewer customers.

Limiting new construction has saved money and, Paris organizers say, contributed to their goal of halving the Games' overall carbon footprint compared with London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. Among the new venues, an Olympic aquatics center in Seine Saint-Denis is expected to help that underprivileged suburb of northern Paris teach more children to swim.

French organizers argue that the Games will leave positive impacts on Paris long after the Olympians and Paralympic athletes who follow from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 have departed.

A costly and complex cleanup of the long-polluted Seine, sped up by the deadline of the Games, is expected to reopen the river to public swimming next year, after Olympic marathon swimmers and triathletes have competed in it. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip this month to demonstrate that its waters are safe.

With estimated overall costs of around 9 billion euros ($9.7 billion), more than half from sponsors, ticket sales and other non-public funding, Paris’ expenses so far are less than for Tokyo, Rio and London.

Once opening ceremony fireworks have become memories, the City of Light will then become the playground of Olympians.

American gymnastics superstar Simon Biles is back. French-born basketball phenom Victor Wembanyama will carry home hopes on his 7-foot-4 (2.24-meter) frame. Ukrainian and Palestinian athletes have points they want to prove about conflict, resilience and sacrifice that go beyond the realms of sport.

The lucky few will win medals. Many will wish they had gone higher, faster and stronger.

But, together, they'll always have Paris.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Bangladeshi tourist Rushnia Nur Rayfa stands in front of the Eiffel Tower ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 22, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Soldiers patrol on a footbridge over the Seine river ,Wednesday, July 17, 2024 in Paris. France's armed forces held a demonstration of the security measures planned on the River Seine, both in and out of the water, to make it safe for athletes and spectators during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. Organizers have planned a parade of about 10,000 athletes through the heart of the French capital on boats on the Seine along a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) route at sunset on July 26. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

FILE - Police vans park outside the National Assembly during the second round of the legislative elections in Paris, Sunday, July 7, 2024. France’s far right leader Marine Le Pen says the country is “in a quagmire” after the chaotic legislative elections have produced a fragmented parliament and a deeply divided society as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games at the end of the month. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)

FILE - Police check the public for credentials to enter a security perimeter near the Eiffel Tower ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Paris. Three days before the start of the Olympics, France's Interior Minister has hailed the country’s law enforcement for their hard work in making the Paris Games safe for 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Children play at a splash fountain area near signage for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in Nice, France. Nice will host six soccer matches during the summer games. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A worker drives a golf cart inside the competition venue for BMX freestyle ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 19, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Spectator seats line the Seine river in front of the Musee d'Orsay ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Paris. Organizers have planned a parade of about 10,000 athletes through the heart of the French capital on boats on the Seine along a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) route at sunset on July 26. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Soldiers patrol on the Seine river, Wednesday, July 17, 2024 in Paris. France's armed forces held a demonstration of the security measures planned on the River Seine, both in and out of the water, to make it safe for athletes and spectators during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. Organizers have planned a parade of about 10,000 athletes through the heart of the French capital on boats on the Seine along a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) route at sunset on July 26. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A. Soldier takes a photo of the Eiffel Tower as he patrols at the Trocadero plaza Thursday, July 18, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A cyclist argues with police officers near Le Louvre museum at the security perimeter set up for the Olympic Games, Thursday, July 18, 2024 in Paris. A special kind of iron curtain came down across central Paris on Thursday, with the beginning of an Olympic anti-terrorism perimeter along the banks of the River Seine sealing off a kilometers-long (miles-long) area to Parisians and tourists who hadn't applied in advance for a pass. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A couple embraces in the street as the flag of France hangs from a restaurant ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 21, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Officers from the National Police Intervention Force stand watch outside Sacre Coeur of Montmartre Basilica, ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 22, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Victor, left, and his girlfriend, Florence, talk along the Seine River at dusk as the spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral rises in the background ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Athletes play at the Tour Eiffel stadium that will host the Beach Volleyball on the Champs-de-Mars, at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Wednesday July 24 2024. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)

A couple stand next to a security fence placed around Notre Dame cathedral ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 22, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A woman from Mexico poses in the courtyard of the Louvre museum, which is outside the security perimeter set up for the Olympic Games, Friday, July 19, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A visitor strolls past a "Paris" sign that is reflected in the glass wall of the Montparnasse tower observation deck as the Eiffel Tower stands in the background ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

KHIRBET ZANUTA, West Bank (AP) — An entire Palestinian community fled their tiny West Bank village last fall after repeated threats from Israeli settlers with a history of violence. Then, in a rare endorsement of Palestinian land rights, Israel’s highest court ruled this summer the displaced residents of Khirbet Zanuta were entitled to return under the protection of Israeli forces.

But their homecoming has been bittersweet. In the intervening months, nearly all the houses in the village, a health clinic and a school were destroyed — along with the community’s sense of security in the remote desert land where they have farmed and herded sheep for decades.

Roughly 40% of former residents have so far chosen not to return. The 150 or so that have come back are sleeping outside the ruins of their old homes. They say they are determined to rebuild – and to stay – even as settlers once again try to intimidate them into leaving and a court order prevents them from any new construction.

“There is joy, but there are some drawbacks,” said Fayez Suliman Tel, the head of the village council and one of the first to come back to see the ransacked village – roofs seemingly blown off buildings, walls defaced by graffiti.

“The situation is extremely miserable,” Tel said, “but despite that, we are steadfast and staying in our land, and God willing, this displacement will not be repeated.”

The Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank said in a statement to The Associated Press it had not received any claims of Israeli vandalism of the village, and that it was taking measures to “ensure security and public order” during the villagers’ return.

“The Palestinians erected a number of structural components illegally at the place, and in that regard enforcement proceedings were undertaken in accordance with law,” the statement said.

The villagers of Khirbet Zanuta had long faced harassment and violence from settlers. But after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that launched the war in Gaza, they said they received explicit death threats from Israelis living in an unauthorized outpost up the hill called Meitarim Farm. The outpost is run by Yinon Levi, who has been sanctioned by the U.S., UK, EU and Canada for menacing his Palestinian neighbors.

The villagers say they reported the threats and attacks to Israeli police, but said they got little help. Fearing for their lives, at the end of October, they packed up whatever they could carry and left.

Though settler violence had been rising even before the war under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it has been turbocharged ever since Oct. 7. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence since then, according to the United Nations, and very few have returned home.

Khirbet Zanuta stands as a rare example. It is unclear if any other displaced community has been granted a court's permission to return since the start of the war.

Even though residents have legal protection Israel's highest court, they still have to contend with Levi and other young men from the Meitarim Farm outpost trying to intimidate them.

Shepherd Fayez Fares Al Samareh, 57, said he returned to Khirbet Zanuta two weeks ago to find that his house had been bulldozed by settlers. The men of his family have joined him in bringing their flocks back home, he said, but conditions in the village are grave.

“The children have not returned and the women as well. Where will they stay? Under the sun?” he said.

Settler surveillance continues: Al Samareh said that every Friday and Saturday, settlers arrive to the village, photographing residents.

Videos taken by human rights activists and obtained by The Associated Press show settlers roaming around Khirbet Zanuta last month, taking pictures of residents as Israeli police look on.

By displacing small villages, rights groups say West Bank settlers like Levi are able to accumulate vast swaths of land, reshaping the map of the occupied territory that Palestinians hope to include in their homeland as part of any two-state solution.

The plight of Khirbet Zanuta is also an example of the limited effectiveness of international sanctions as a means of reducing settler violence in the West Bank. The U.S. recently targeted Hashomer Yosh, a government-funded group that sends volunteers to work on West Bank farms, both legal and illegal, with sanctions. Hashomer Yosh sent volunteers to Levi’s outpost, a Nov. 13 Facebook post said.

“After all 250 Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta were forced to leave, Hashomer Yosh volunteers fenced off the village to prevent the residents from returning,” a U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said last week.

Neither Hashomer Yosh nor Levi responded to a request for comment on intrusions into the village since residents returned. But Levi claimed in a June interview with AP that the land was his, and admitted to taking part in clearing it of Palestinians, though he denied doing so violently.

“Little by little, you feel when you drive on the roads that everyone is closing in on you,” he said at the time. “They’re building everywhere, wherever they want. So you want to do something about it.”

The legal rights guaranteed to Khirbet Zanuta's residents only go so far. Under the terms of the court ruling that allowed them to return, they are forbidden from building new structures across the roughly 1 square kilometer village. The land, the court ruled, is part of an archaeological zone, so any new structures are at risk of demolition.

Distraught but not deterred, the villagers are repairing badly damaged homes, the health clinic and the EU-funded school — by whom, they do not know for sure.

“We will renovate these buildings so that they are qualified to receive students before winter sets in,” Khaled Doudin, the governor of the Hebron region that includes Khirbet Zanuta, said as he stood in the bulldozed school.

“And after that we will continue to rehabilitate it,” he said, “so that we do not give the occupation the opportunity to demolish it again.”

Palestinians Ribhi Ahmad Battat, left, and Issa Ahmad Battat, residents of the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, take shelter from the midday sun in a cave Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Palestinians rest in the shade in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Israeli Police speak to residents of the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, after activists called to report Israeli setters in the village,Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

An Israeli settler films Palestinian residents and activists in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

An Israeli activist, left, calls Israeli Police as settlers visit the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

A child stands in the ruins of a stone house in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, overlooking the Meitarim Farm, owned by sanctioned settler Yinon Levy Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. The Palestinian community was driven out by Israeli settlers but a handful of residents have returned under court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Hassan Battat takes cover from the midday heat in a cave in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Hassan Battat stands in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

A stone house is defaced with Israeli settlers' graffiti in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Hassan Battat stands in what remains of his home in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Hassan Battat stands in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, near his home, rear left, overlooking the Meitarim settlement, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave this village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

The ruins of a home in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, destroyed when residents were driven out by Israeli settlers, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Fayez Suliman Tel, head of the village council for Khirbet Zanuta, stands next to a home that was destroyed when his community was driven out by Israeli settlers, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their West Bank village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Goats stand in the midday sun, in the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. A small handful of the community's residents have returned here under court order after settlers drove them out. They are not permitted to build anything, including shelter for their animals. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Palestinians Ribhi Ahmad Battat, left, and Issa Ahmad Battat, residents of the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, take shelter from the midday sun in a cave Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)