Fears in Paris Over ‘High Risk’ France-Israel Football Match

Date: 12 November 2024 - 22:18

News ID: ۱۳۳۴۹۵

PARIS (Dispatches) – France is preparing to host the Zionist regime’s football team in a match deemed “high risk” by the authorities after last week’s violence in Amsterdam.
Violence erupted in the Dutch capital on Thursday in the run-up to Maccabi Tel Aviv’s five-goal defeat to Ajax.
According to Dutch locals and police, Maccabi fans had torn down Palestinian flags on private property, threatened locals and threw projectiles at passers by.
They were also filmed singing racist chants against Arabs, leading to a response by locals, including members of the Moroccan community, in which dozens of Maccabi fans were injured, including at least one fan who was forced into a canal.
Dutch police reported the arrest of around 60 people and the Zionist regime organized emergency flights to repatriate its people.
Despite eyewitness accounts detailing a series of provocations by Maccabi fans, western media outlets and politicians have characterized the events as an anti-Semitic pogrom.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would attend the Uefa Nations League event, scheduled on Thursday at the Stade de France near Paris.
On Friday, Macron “firmly condemned” the “violence against Israeli citizens in Amsterdam”, which he said recalled “the most shameful hours in history”.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced that the match scheduled on November 14 would not be relocated, after several calls to follow the example of the October game between the two teams, which was played in Budapest.
Neither Macron or Retailleau made mention of the racist chanting against Arabs, or violence on the part of the Maccabi fans.
France announced exceptional measures to ensure security at the upcoming match, with the mobilization of a total of 4,000 police officers and gendarmes.
Such a deployment corresponds to an “extremely reinforced system” and is “very unusual” for an international match, the Paris prefect of police Laurent Nunez said on Sunday.
To prevent an invasion of the pitch, the first rows of the stands will be closed off. Mobile force units and plainclothes police officers will operate in the stands, while the Raid, the elite unit of the national police, will be responsible for the security of the Zionist regime’s team.
Palestinian flags will also be banned from the stadium.