Bazar International president Carmen Decalf said the Israel stand would not be present at this year's event.

This weekend, visitors will flock to the LuxExpo for the Bazar International, composed of around 60 stands from different countries, as communities interact and share their culture in the Grand Duchy.

However, one stand will be absent from the 2023 event. The Israeli stand managers said they received a letter from the Bazar organising committee stating the following: "We are obliged to take the very difficult and sad decision to ask you not to participate in this edition of the International Bazar. For your own good, and to avoid exposing our benefactors and visitors to a potentially risky and stressful situation for all of us."

The president of the organising committee of Bazar International, Carmen Decalf, did not publicly acknowledge the committee's security concerns, but instead hinted that the stand's poor communication was to blame for their exclusion. The decision was said to be last-minute, according to Decalf: "We had until Tuesday to see if the stand would participate or not. We didn't know at the time, and we still didn't know until the night if they would be coming or not."

A manager for the Israeli stand, however, explained: "The reason we didn't respond was not to make life difficult for the organisers, but it was instead because we had asked the police if they could ensure a presence inside the venue, given the delicate situation."

The stand managers never received a response from the police. Despite security concerns, they said they would have liked to participate, as one of the founding members of the Bazar.

Decalf emphasised that the Bazar is neither political nor religious. She added that in its 63 years of operation, there has never been any kind of rowdiness at the event, which celebrates multiculturalism and peaceful coexistence in Luxembourg.