After a heated debate, Israelis have decided that as much as they love the peanut snack Bamba, they do not want the iconic red-haired baby who has advertised the snack for the past 20 years to become the mascot for the Israeli team at this summers Olympic Games in London. Earlier this week, the Israeli Olympic Committee revealed that the Bamba baby would be the Olympic teams mascot. But after listening to the reactions of the public, the committee and the company decided to keep the baby at home. A statement issued by Bamba manufacturer Osem stressed that the company would not be withdrawing its sponsorship of the team. Initially, Osem agreed to have the Bamba baby represent Israels Olympic team in the games set to be held in London this summer between July 27 and Aug. 12. But after it became known that the food manufacturing company paid NIS 150,000 ($40,000) to the Olympic Committee to facilitate the idea, incurring the anger of many Israelis -- especially consumer affairs organizations and members of Knesset -- Osem reneged on its support for the idea. The company did, however, leave its payment as a donation to the Olympic Committee. Israeli Olympic chief Ephraim Zinger defended the initial choice, telling Israels army radio Wednesday that the team needed commercial sponsors because public funds fell short. A spokesman for Osem said on Tuesday that the company agreed to the deal and lent its baby out of a desire to support sports in Israel, and participate in the Olympic experience. After taking note of public reactions to the deal, Osem and the Olympic Committee made a joint decision to abort the agreement and all the mutual commitments included in it. Before the announcement was made by Osem, Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat (Likud) called on committee leaders to reconsider their choice of the Bamba baby as Israels Olympic team icon. Chairman of the Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports Committee Alex Miller (Yisrael Beitenu) planned to convene an emergency meeting on March 19 in light of what he said was intervention by various groups in the preparations for the 2012 Olympics in London. After Osems announcement on Tuesday, Miller congratulated Osem for its annulment of the agreement and said, We must get young people involved in the choice of our Olympic team mascot, as an act that would strengthen their motivation. Leaders of the cottage cheese protest group -- which led Israeli students to boycott many dairy products last summer -- sent a letter to Olympic Committee Chairman Zvi Varshaviak saying, Israeli citizens are embarrassed by your decision to sell Israels Olympic symbol and icon for a bowl of lentil stew, for product marketing purposes. Worse than that is the fact that the product in question is an expensive flagship product of a monopoly such as Osem. After Osem withdrew from the agreement, cottage cheese group leaders said, We are happy with Osems decision, but the Israeli government must still make sure, through legislation, that in the future consumer-related companies will not steal national symbols that belong to us all. Mothers who run the Israel is dear [in Hebrew also expensive] to us movement also sent an urgent letter to the Olympic Committee asking to drop the Bamba baby as its symbol. For the third time, the committee was left with the task of choosing a mascot to represent the Israeli team. Before the Bamba debacle, the committee was forced to abandon its previous choice of mascot Shpitzik after a court determined that it was too similar to a trademark protected puppet featured on the Educational Television network. The network claimed that Shpitzik was identical to Kishkashta, a talking cactus whose show was popular with children in Israel in the 1970s and 1980s.