Paris is on edge. The French football team will play against Israel in the Nations League tonight. The great fear is that things will get out of hand, just like in Amsterdam: demonstrations for and against Israel have been announced around the match. France is taking heavy security measures.
4,000 police officers are deployed at the Stade de France stadium, on public transport and in other places in the capital. The French Football Association itself has hired about 1,600 security guards. An elite unit must protect Israeli footballers. President Macron is there, in solidarity with the Jewish community.
“It is a high-risk match. We are preparing for it with great determination, but also with calmness,” said Paris police chief Laurent Nunez. “I would be lying if I said there wasn’t any risk associated with this match, but a very large number of police officers have been mobilized for this event, which is quite unusual for a Nations League match.”
Shops, bars and businesses closed
Only French and Israeli flags are allowed in the stadium during the match, Palestinian flags are prohibited. Football fans who want to enter the stadium must go through several security checks, including two identity verifications. Shops and bars around the stadium have been ordered to close in the afternoon. Surrounding offices and businesses will also be closed.
In an ideal world, football is just football.
The shadow of the events in Amsterdam around Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv hangs over the match. The Israeli Security Council has therefore advised its own fans not to attend international sporting events or cultural events for fear of being attacked. It seems that this is being heeded. There are 3500 seats available for Israeli fans, but.
It seems that many French fans are also ignoring the match. Of the 80,000 tickets, 20,000 have been sold so far. A survey by the supporters’ association Les Irreductibles Français shows that 30 percent think it is too dangerous. 15 percent of supporters say they will boycott the match against Israel because of the war in Gaza. The Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip can also count on a lot of resistance in France. Last week, supporters of Paris Saint Germain unfurled an immense banner with the text ‘Free Palestine’.
Demonstrations are also planned around the competition. At six o’clock a pro-Palestine meeting starts at the town hall of Saint Denis, the Parisian suburb where the Stade de France is also located. But there is also a pro-Israel demonstration, by the right-wing Jewish movement Betar. Betar leader Yigal Brand, who recently served as a soldier in the Gaza Strip, says his movement is “enraged about what happened in Amsterdam.” And: “We are proud Zionists and have nothing to apologize for.”
Canceling is not an option
Canceling or rescheduling the charged match was not an option for the French. President Macron has announced that he will be at the match, along with other French leaders. Not only to support the French team, says a spokesperson for the Elysée, but also to ‘spread the message of brotherhood and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic attacks in Amsterdam’.
That message resonates well with the umbrella Jewish organization in France, CRIF. Chairman Yonathan Arfi: “I am of course concerned about the match. The images from Amsterdam were terrifying, a violent act of anti-Semitism. In an ideal world, football is just football. But in the light of anti-Semitism, now is the time to make Republican values. It is necessary for the French to show their support. In the stadium, with the president and politicians.
The match should never have gone ahead, say advocates of the Palestinian cause. They believe that Israel should have been suspended because of the war in Gaza and Lebanon, in which the country has claimed tens of thousands of victims. Mostly women and children.
Salah Hamouri of the organization Urgence Palestine says: “Football and politics are inseparable. Some players of the Israeli team are or were in the army. This is about the struggle of an occupied people against an occupying power, and has nothing to do with religion. If there is violence, it will come from the supporters of the occupying state. And not from the people who have been demonstrating peacefully in France for thirteen months now.”
‘It’s still a football match’
When asked, the coach of the French national team, Didier Deschamps, said: “We have tried to prepare for the match as normally as possible. But it is clear that no one in the team is immune from the context, which is tough. We will make sure that it remains a football match, despite everything.”
