It was a Basketball game classified as “sensitive”. The meeting between Nanterre 92 and Hapoel Holon at the Maurice-Thorez sports hall in Nanterre, Wednesday evening, ultimately ended with a match interruption of “a few minutes” and seven arrests of pro-Palestinian activists.
“Around 9 p.m., following the display of Palestinian flags and the incursion on the basketball court, the police intervened to put an end to the emerging clashes in the stands,” indicates the police headquarters. According to images filmed by several spectators, pro-Palestinian activists first interrupted the match by running onto the floor. Then, returning to the stands, they were attacked by supporters of the Israeli team.
A scuffle therefore took place before the intervention of the CRS present to secure the meeting. “The action of the police allowed a rapid return to calm. The European Cup match was only interrupted for a few minutes, with no players returning to the locker room,” the police headquarters said. The match was able to continue without incident and ended with the victory of Nanterre (87-77).
“No worries in the city”
Of the seven people arrested, six were placed in police custody for “disturbing the running of the competition” and another for “violence against a person holding public authority”, in this case a police officer according to our information. Apart from these scuffles lasting a few minutes in the stands, a dozen demonstrators with flags gathered in front of the sports hall without giving rise to tensions.
The city of Nanterre, which was worried about “disturbances to public order” and had issued an order for the meeting to take place behind closed doors – before this was contested by the Hauts-de-Seine prefecture and rebutted by the administrative court of Cergy (Val-d’Oise) -, confirms, this Thursday morning, that the situation has been “completely under control” and that “there have been no problems in the city”.
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