Israel urges citizens not to attend Paris soccer game against French national team
Macron to attend Thursday’s Nations League match, for which 4,000 police officers will be deployed, a week after mass violence broke out against Israelis after game in Amsterdam
Israeli authorities on Sunday urged citizens to skip Thursday’s France-Israel soccer game in Paris, in the wake of mass violence against Israelis in Amsterdam, which erupted a few days earlier after an Israeli team faced off against a local soccer club there.
“In the last few days, various calls have been identified among pro-Palestinians/ supporters of terror groups to harm Israelis and Jews, under the cover of protests and demonstrations, and while taking advantage of mass attendance [of sports and cultural events] to maximize harm and media exposure,” a statement from the National Security Council said.
The council, which regularly issues travel warnings, said Israelis should “completely avoid games/cultural events that have Israeli participation for the next week.”
The statement came after a wave of violent attacks on Israeli tourists in Amsterdam on Thursday night, following a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and local Ajax. Israeli officials said 10 citizens were injured in the violence, apparently committed by local Arab and Muslim gangs; hundreds of additional Israelis huddled in their hotels for hours, fearing they could be attacked.
The Dutch government condemned the attacks as antisemitic, as did US President Joe Biden, whose envoy for combating antisemitism called them “terribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom.”
In its statement on Sunday, the National Security Council specifically mentioned the UEFA Nations League match in Paris one Thursday, and said there are also threats to Jews and Israelis in Brussels, Amsterdam, and in unnamed “central British cities.”
It also said Israelis traveling abroad should avoid identifying as such, and cautioned travelers to study up on risks within their destinations, including whether “there is a large migrant population from countries opposed to Israel.”
Paris police said Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for the match on Thursday, to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transportation.
In addition, French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the game, the Elysee presidential palace said.
“There’s a context, tensions that make that match a high-risk event for us,” Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez said on French news broadcaster BFM TV, adding that authorities “won’t tolerate” any violence.
Nuñez said that 2,500 police officers would be deployed around the Stade de France stadium, north of the French capital, in addition to 1,500 others in Paris and on public transportation.
“There will be an anti-terrorist security perimeter around the stadium,” Nuñez said. Security checks will be “reinforced,” he added, including with systematic pat-downs and bag searches.
Nuñez said that French organizers have been in contact with Israeli authorities and security forces in order to prepare for the match.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed Friday that the France-Israel match would go ahead as planned.
“I think that for a symbolic reason we must not yield, we must not give up,” he said, noting that sports fans from around the world came together for the Paris Olympics this year to celebrate the “universal values” of sports.
Macron’s expected attendance not only is a show of support for the French team, but also aims as sending “a message of fraternity and solidarity following the intolerable antisemitic acts that followed the match in Amsterdam,” an official in the president’s entourage said. The official could not be named, in line with the Elysee’s customary practices.
Meanwhile, right-wing Jewish youth movement Betar said it would rally in Paris against antisemitism, ahead of the Nations League match.
Yigal Brand, CEO of World Betar, said in a statement on Sunday that the movement, which has its origins more than a hundred years ago in revisionist Zionism, was “outraged at what has happened in Amsterdam.”
“We are proud Zionists and have nothing to apologize for,” Brand said.
He called on group members and supporters to “gather Wednesday in Paris and Thursday at the soccer game, which is also being threatened.”
The statement also said Betar and the French Jewish student movement MEJF will host Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in Paris on Wednesday.
Betar plans to gather alongside the MEJF on the sidelines of the “Israel is Forever” gala, an event in support of Israel that several associations, unions, and French leftist parties have denounced.
