After the anti-Semitic riots in Amsterdam, France declared the game against Israel a high-risk game. The police operation is massive, President Macron is in the stadium, but the Israeli government is warning against the visit. Many visitors are not allowed into the arena anyway.
Five Israeli soccer fans had to be hospitalized. 20 to 30 fans were slightly injured and 62 people were arrested. Amsterdam’s Green mayor Femke Halsema spoke of a “pitch-black night”. After the Europa League game between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv, there were violent attacks by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Israeli football fans. According to the police, the attackers had called for attacks on Jews in online services. Israeli flags were set on fire and cell phones and passports were stolen. Videos of hunting scenes spread like wildfire.
The Nations League game between Israel and France falls in the middle of this tense atmosphere. There is great fear that the situation will continue to escalate. In order to prevent a pitch-black night in Paris, the encounter is now becoming a high-risk game. Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez announced that 4,000 officers would be mobilized for the game on Thursday (8:45 p.m., DAZN). The Israeli team is protected by elite units on arrival and departure. Only French and Israeli flags are allowed in the stadium. Instead of the usual 80,000 spectators in the stands, only 20,000 are allowed.
However, Israel advises its citizens not to attend the international match for security reasons. Citizens should “completely avoid sporting and cultural events in which Israelis participate.” This particularly applies to the international football match in Paris. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also instructed his secret service Mossad to develop a plan to combat violence at sporting events.
France sticks to playing against Israel
After the riots in Amsterdam there was also talk of canceling the game. But the French government does not want to “capitulate to anti-Semitism”. A change of stadium is also out of the question for the French Interior Minister: “Some are calling for the France-Israel game to be moved. I don’t accept that,” said Bruno Retailleau on Friday on the online service X.
The game will take place at the Stade de France near Paris. The stadium is located in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, which, according to the French statistics office Insee, has the highest proportion of migrants. The Parc des Princes, which would have been considered as an alternative stadium, borders on a middle-class neighborhood. In the French capital and especially in its suburbs, where the Stade de France is located, there is a ferment over the Israeli military operation in Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7th. The number of anti-Semitic attacks in France quadrupled to over 1,600 in 2013 compared to the previous year.
France’s government is not intimidated by hostility to Jews in its own country. President Emmanuel Macron is setting another example. As the Élysée Palace in Paris announced, the head of state will attend the game in the stadium. He was sending “a message of brotherhood and solidarity after the unacceptable anti-Semitic acts that followed the game in Amsterdam this week,” it said.
Maccabi Tel Aviv’s game on neutral ground
The fact that Paris is a breeding ground for anti-Semitism was also shown at club level last week. At Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League home game against Atlético Madrid, the “Collectif Ultras Paris”, the club’s largest fan club, stretched a huge banner across the entire side of the stadium in the Parc des Princes – it said “Free Palestine”. “i” identified the outline of Israel as Palestinian territory.
On Monday evening, UEFA also moved Maccabi Tel Aviv’s next away game in the Europa League to neutral ground. The duel against the traditional Istanbul club Besiktas will take place on November 28th in Debrecen, Hungary. Spectators were not allowed following a decision by the Hungarian authorities, it was said.
Even before the incidents in Amsterdam, Turkish authorities had decided that the duel could not be held in Turkey. Relations between Turkey and Israel are tense. In connection with Israel’s warfare in the Gaza Strip, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly speaks of genocide. He describes the Islamist Hamas as a “liberation organization.” In August, Turkey also joined a genocide lawsuit against Israel brought by South Africa.
