Israel face France in a Nations League football match in Paris on Thursday surrounded by a huge security operation to prevent a repetition of the attacks on Israeli fans in Amsterdam last week.
French authorities are taking no chances with the game at the Stade de France after supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv club were chased by men on scooters and beaten following a Europa League match against Ajax in Amsterdam on November 7.
Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema called it a “poisonous cocktail of anti-Semitism and hooliganism”.
Despite calls from some French lawmakers to postpone Thursday’s match or move it to another city, the government said it refused to bow to the risk of violence.
“We will not give in to anti-Semitism anywhere, and violence — including in the French Republic — will never prevail, nor will intimidation,” President Emmanuel Macron, who will attend the game, told BFMTV a few hours before kickoff.
Israel has urged its citizens to avoid the game but Macron reassured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call that France had taken the necessary security measures “to ensure the match goes well”, the president’s office said.
A total of 4,000 police and members of the security forces will be stationed in Paris and around the stadium, where the athletics and rugby sevens events were held during this year’s Olympics.
In a rare move, police will also be deployed inside the stadium in roles normally assigned to civilian security staff.
An elite police unit will guard the Israeli team and another 1,600 civilian security personnel will be on duty.
The security context has clearly impacted the attendance, with only around 13,000 spectators expected in a venue that holds up to 80,000, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Wednesday.
Authorities say up to 20,000 tickets have been sold, but some ticketholders might stay away.
A French police source said around 100 Israeli fans would attend the match and 600 members of the Jewish community in France would also travel to the stadium in buses with a police escort.
Pro-Palestinian protests
The incidents in the Netherlands took place with anti-Israeli sentiment and reported anti-Semitic acts across the world soaring as Israel wages wars against Iran-backed Islamist militants in Lebanon and Gaza.
The violence in Amsterdam flared after Maccabi fans set fire to a Palestinian flag the night before and vandalised a taxi, authorities said.
Amsterdam’s mayor stressed this week that “even though a more complete picture emerged” of the evening’s events, there was no doubt that a call had gone out for a “hunt for Jews”.
Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders blamed the violence on “Muslims”.
France has the largest Muslim population in western Europe.
Several hundred people attended a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Thursday in Saint-Denis to the north of Paris where the stadium is located.
That came after a larger protest on Wednesday against the holding of an “Israel is Forever” gala in the French capital. Clashes broke out with police firing tear gas and some protesters damaged the window of a restaurant.
The leader of the Jewish community in France, Yonathan Arfi, said he was concerned ahead of the match but expressed hope it would demonstrate there could be no repeat of the violence in the Netherlands.
“We need to show a sort of ‘anti-Amsterdam’ this evening,” said Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF).
As well as Macron, Prime Minister Michel Barnier and former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the match.
Macron’s presence is aimed at drawing a line after “controversies and misunderstandings” in recent relations between France and Israel, a member of his team said.
Last week in Jerusalem, Israeli police entered a French-owned church compound, briefly detaining two gendarmes and prompting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot to abandon a scheduled visit.
The president would be present at the match “because there was strong emotion, especially after Amsterdam”, said the official, who asked not to be named.
“It is important to show support, to also say that we will not give in to fears.
“I know that there have been controversies and misunderstandings. But for us, there is no doubt about the involvement of the president in the fight against anti-Semitism.”
On the pitch, France only need a draw to secure a place in the Nations League quarter-finals.