A so-called “high-risk” football match between France and Israel a week after visiting Tel Aviv fans were attacked in Amsterdam saw scuffles and protests but thanks to a major police operation little violence.
The Israeli national anthem was booed at the Stade de France on Thursday night at a widely discussed and heavily policed football match between France and Israel. The potential for serious disruptions had been anticipated after another match in the same series of games in Amsterdam a week before saw what politicians from both left and right referred to as a “pogrom” against Jewish tourists by local “youths”, allegedly of “Moroccan and North African heritage”.
Dutch police had found themselves outclassed by highly mobile gangs on scooters, but French national police were determined not to see a repeat, with 4,000 officers deployed both to the stadium, and surrounding areas. The Israeli government had already warned its citizens to totally avoid sports and cultural fixtures in Europe this week, and even to try avoid being visibly Israeli in public. In the end, only a few hundred Israeli fans did actually attend the Paris match and the 80,000 stadium was mostly empty.
Those who did were bussed in and out on chartered coaches under heavy police guard. The visiting Israeli football players themselves were put under the protection of an elite French counter-terrorism police unit, reports the BBC.
While the match itself — which ended in a 0-0 draw — passed off without being interrupted, there was a scuffle inside the stadium that was quickly ended by stewards without intervention of the police, who stood by. France’s Le Figaro states a group of football supporters, including some carrying Israeli flags, chased and hit a man when he was on the ground.
In other incidents, Palestinian flags were unfurled in the stadium and the Israeli national anthem was booed. Israel-supporting football fans chanted “free the hostages”. Under footballing association rules, only French and Israeli flags are allowed, as the two competing nations and political statements at football matches are banned. The Palestinian flags were reportedly confiscated by security.
Police said on Friday they had made two arrests. The Associated Press cites Paris police chief Laurent Nunez who said: “There was the start of a fight. We were extremely reactive, so the incident was very quickly contained”. It is stated what started the scuffle that prompted the arrests is unclear.
Outside, a protest by pro-Palestine activists took place to state the match shouldn’t have been allowed to go ahead at all. Left-wing attendees said it was wrong for President Emmanuel Macron to have attended the game as, in their view, this was an act “honouring a country that commits genocide”.
The French government on the other hand said it would not — unlike other nations which have refused to host Israeli football games — bow to mob rule and cancel or relocate the match. Macron’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said: “France does not give way to those who sow hatred”.
The night before the match had seen thousands march in Paris against Israel. As reported, police clashed with activists at a rally called by a constellation of French left-wing political parties including the Greens and ‘Anticapitalists’. Police used tear gas to disperse violent marchers and branches of American chains McDonald’s and Starbucks on the Boulevard Montmartre were vandalised.
Tourism or attending sports games is becoming increasingly difficult in Europe for Israeli citizens, where mass migration has radically altered city demographics in many European states and governments increasingly see events like football matches against Israeli teams as a “high-risk” threat to order they would rather do without. A recent home match for a Belgian team against Israel couldn’t find a single city in the country willing to host the game. As reported earlier this week:
Belgium, the home of the institutions of the European Union and one of the most multicultural cities on the continent — long notorious for its stubborn population of radical Islamists — outright refused to allow Israel’s footballers to play there for the UEFA championship this year. The Belgian authorities said at the time it would be “impossible to organize this very high-risk match” due to tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.
The Brussels Signal publication reported in July that as Brussels sought to avoid exposing the city’s new multicultural population to visiting Israelis, several other Belgian cities also refused to host the games. Minister for Climate and Sports Benoît Hellings said there was a “disproportionate risk” from playing the game at home, and: “given the chance of riots, in the stadium itself, in the immediate vicinity and in the city center, we cannot take the risk of endangering the safety of our fellow citizens.”