The Nations League football match between France and Israel took place in Paris under extensive security measures today, Thursday. In light of the very serious events in Amsterdam, 4,000 police and gendarmes were deployed between the Stade de France and the center of the capital ahead of the match.
However, no significant incidents were recorded on the sidelines of the match, which ended with a score of 0-0. Only a brief altercation, involving a small number of fans, occurred inside the stadium: it is not yet clear what precisely caused it, but the security services immediately intervened to quell it.
Attending the meeting was the head of the Elysée Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy. Also present in the presidential gallery were Prime Minister Michel Barnier, the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and the Israeli Ambassador to Paris Joshua Zarka.
Macron had expressed his assurances to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the “mobilization of France” for a “good match”. The issue of security has become crucial in a context marked throughout Europe by an increase in anti-Semitic acts following the conflict between Israel and the militiamen of Hamas and Hezbollah.
“We will not give in to anti-Semitism and violence, even in the French Republic, will never prevail just like intimidation,” Macron underlined on a television channel before the match.
In the run-up to the match, a pro-Palestinian demonstration took place, with the participation of several hundred people, in a square just over two kilometers from the stadium.
Swiss
