According to the entourage of the President of the Republic, this is in particular “to send a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic acts which followed the match in Amsterdam this week”.
4000 police and gendarmes mobilized
Thursday evening, 4,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized for this “high risk” match, indicated Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez. Such a deployment of law enforcement corresponds to an “extremely reinforced system”, “very unusual”, for an international match, added the police prefect on BFMTV.
“We will not tolerate any excesses and disturbances to public order,” declared the police prefect, adding that controls to enter the stadium would be “extremely reinforced” but that the police had not “requested that there be a limited capacity” in the stadium.
Palestinian flags will also be banned inside the stadium. “There can only be French or Israeli flags, and messages of support for the teams. In the stadiums there cannot be any message of a political nature,” said Laurent Nuñez.
Israel advises its citizens not to attend the match
For its part, Israel's National Security Council said it was recommending its citizens not to attend the match. “The National Security Council recommends that Israelis abroad act with precautions […] particularly during the coming week, to completely avoid going to sports meetings and cultural events in which Israelis participate, especially the next match of the Israeli team in Paris,” indicated in a press release this organization which depends from the Prime Minister's office.
The French Federation (FFF) estimated the number of tickets sold for the match at “around 20,000”, a far cry from the approximately 80,000 places available at the Stade de France, while specifying that the ticket office was still open.
A pro-Israel rally organized the day before in Paris
It is in this extremely tense context that a right-wing international Jewish movement announced plans for a pro-Israel rally in Paris the day before the match. Betar, which has numerous branches around the world and counts radical members in its ranks, plans to come together alongside the French Jewish Student Movement (MEJF).
This gathering will take place on the same day as the “Israel forever” gala, an event in support of Israel organized by several far-right personalities, which is due to welcome Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to Paris this year.
