French President Emmanuel Macron will attend Thursday’s France-Israel football tie, which is being played under high security, his office has announced. Macron’s attendance was to “send a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable acts of anti-Semitism that followed the match in Amsterdam this week,” his office said on Sunday, November 10.
The announcement of his presence comes after violence in Amsterdam following a game between Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch team Ajax. Israeli, Dutch and European leaders condemned the “anti-Semitic” clashes in Amsterdam which left about two dozen people injured. Israeli authorities have urged Israeli fans to skip Thursday’s football game in Paris.
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Paris police chief Laurent Nunez described the match as high risk and revealed that 4,000 gendarmes would be deployed around the stadium, on public transport and across the French capital.
Pro-Israel rally planned
Right-wing Jewish movement Betar said it would rally in Paris against anti-Semitism ahead of the Nations League football match. Yigal Brand, CEO of World Betar, said in a statement on Sunday that the movement, which is present worldwide and has links to the Israeli right, was “outraged at what has happened in Amsterdam.” He called on group members and supporters to “gather Wednesday in Paris and Thursday at the soccer game, which is also being threatened.”
“We are proud Zionists and have nothing to apologize for,” Brand added in a statement. A high police presence is being prepared for the match at the Stade de France.
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, a pro-Israel youth movement, plans to gather alongside the MEJF on the sidelines of the “Israel Is Forever” gala, an event in support of Israel organized by far-right individuals. Several associations, unions and French leftist parties had denounced the gala, and in particular Smotrich’s planned appearance.
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Israeli authorities had warned fans against attending a Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball match in the Italian city of Bologna on Friday, which ended without incident. Following the violence in Amsterdam, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the Mossad spy agency to draw up a plan to prevent unrest at events abroad.
Read more Subscribers only France-Israel match to go ahead ‘as usual’ despite Amsterdam violence
