Emmanuel Macron had not initially included the France-Israel football match on his agenda this Thursday. The President of the Republic will finally attend, at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, the Élysée said on Sunday, confirming information from RTL.
This announcement comes a few days after an outbreak of anti-Semitic violence in Amsterdam against Israeli supporters of Maccabi Tel-Aviv, following their club’s Thursday evening match against Ajax Amsterdam.
“Emmanuel Macron considered, given the moment, the chilling side of what happened in Amsterdam with these shocking anti-Semitic acts, that showing both his support for the French team and making this gesture of solidarity and fraternity was useful,” confirms those around him at Le Parisien – Today in France. On Friday, the head of state “firmly” condemned this violence “which recalls the most shameful hours in history”. “France will continue to fight relentlessly against odious anti-Semitism,” he added.
At the same time, the Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, announced this Sunday an “extremely reinforced” system, “very unusual”, for this “high risk” match, in his words, with a total of 4,000 police officers and gendarmes mobilized. Not enough to reassure the Israeli authorities who recommend to their citizens not to go to the France-Israel match.
This “gesture of solidarity and fraternity” comes in an extremely tense context between the two countries after the serious diplomatic incident Thursday during the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Jerusalem. “We will not stop there,” warned Jean-Noël Barrot on Sunday in our columns after the summons of the Israeli ambassador to France.
Shortly after this announcement, the Israeli authorities recommended “Israelis abroad to act by taking precautions (…) particularly during the coming week, to completely avoid going to sporting events and cultural events in which Israelis, especially at the next match of the Israeli team in Paris.
