The French football team’s 0-0 draw against Israel, on Thursday, November 14, in a largely empty Stade de France with a subdued atmosphere, was a disappointing result. But the stakes on the field were lower than those surrounding. It was most important and fortunate that the match be held at all.
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A week after the clashes in Amsterdam between pro-Palestinian activists and Israeli supporters of Maccabi Tel-Aviv – marked by shocking racist clashes and unbearable scenes of anti-Semitic manhunting – France demonstrated its commitment to resisting any attempts of importing the Middle Eastern conflict onto its soil. Thanks to an extensive police presence, France made it clear that it would not tolerate the transformation of a sporting event into a battleground while standing firm against any escalation of tension within its borders.
The joint presence in the stands of President Emmanuel Macron, his two predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Michel Barnier sent a clear message in this respect. As did, in its own way, the absence of radical left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has made the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation central to his strategy of winning over immigrant populations. He had called for the match to be canceled. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s absence was also notable. She has been quick to use the Middle East conflict to fuel the anti-Arab rhetoric of the far right. Her political party’s spokesperson, Julien Odoul, had called for the match to be moved to Corsica.
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Soothing and unifying
Since the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, the number of anti-Semitic acts in France has reached a level not seen since 1945: Jews, who represent 1% of the French population, are the targets of 57% of racist and anti-religious attacks. Meanwhile, the Israeli army’s shelling of Gaza at the cost of tens of thousands of civilian deaths has only aroused strong emotions, tension, rhetoric and attitudes, which have amplified the tendency to identify French Jews or Israelis with Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies or French Arabs with terrorists. More than ever, no form of anti-Semitism, the basis of all racisms, can be tolerated.
While the instrumentalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by French politicians fuels the insecurity experienced by French Jews daily, it is impossible to conceal the devastating effects, far beyond the Middle East, of Netanyahu’s war in Gaza, the purpose of which escapes comprehension. The news coming out of a territory ravaged by more than a year of deadly and devastating bombardments, and to which Israel has denied the international press access for more than a year, is fuelling the greatest of concerns. Examples are the denunciation by the Israeli pacifist organization B’Tselem and the denouncement of “ethnic cleansing” underway in northern Gaza by the respected Israeli daily Haaretz. The formation of an outrageously pro-Israeli Republican administration in the US is unlikely to ease tensions.
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In this poisonous atmosphere, everything must be done to limit the effects of the metastases that are developing, particularly in countries like France where large Jewish and Arab minorities live side by side. Rather than political instrumentalization, the poisons of racism and anti-Semitism urgently need a clear, unifying counter-discourse from the highest authorities of the government, capable of calming the competition of pain and fear.
