“I’m not going to this match. They’re going to provide security around the stadium and then what happens? Who’s going to keep me safe if I’m with friends who have an Israeli flag in the metro? asks Philippe about the France-Israel meeting scheduled for Thursday November 14, 2024.
After the attack on Israeli supporters in Amsterdamit’s a dilemma for supporters on both sides. According to the FFF, a little more than 20,000 spectators (out of 80,000 places) must meet under close surveillance in the stands of the Stade de France, in Seine-Saint-Denis. But some gave up for fear of violent outbursts or aggression. Julien also made the decision to follow the match on television. “I planned to go there with friendshe explains, we were happy to find ourselves as usual at the Stade de France where we enjoy following the French team, supporting it. But here, I feel that it is not emotion that I will experience, it will be tension.”
Political fights
If the context also worries her, Barbara, a French woman of Jewish faith, will still go: “I didn’t plan to goshe says but “for me, it has a bit of a symbolic significance, to say that I will not let my guard down against anti-Jewish hatred.“Barbara will go to the match with the DDF, an association for the defense of the French Jewish diaspora, created after October 7, 2023, criticized by some on social networks.
One of its co-founders, Patrick Bensimon, welcomes the imposing security system, but “There is still transport which poses a problem”he believes. “For the moment we have 500 people, 10 buses which will leave from the west of Paris. We will be accompanied by the national police, bikers and also a service called the SPCJ, dedicated to the Jewish community .”
The No Silence association claims to transport 300 people, a political approach for Mélanie Pauli-Geysse, its president. “Sport, today, participates in the Zionist movement and defense of the State of Israelshe says. Several of us are passionate about sport and we decided to mobilize and defend Israel through sport, given that on the other side, we had people who wanted to ‘break the Jew’.”
Blues supporters overwhelmed
Forgetting politics is what Joseph Delage, member of the office of the Blues supporters association, the Irrésistibles, hopes: “Our association is apolitical. It’s the return of the Blues to the Stade de France, so I’ve been impatiently waiting for that for almost a year and a half. We’re here just to support the Blues and have a good time between fans.” The association carried out a survey to which nearly 500 members out of 2,500 in total responded, and 15% were in favor of a boycott of the match, in support of Gaza.
Report by Sandrine Etoa-Andegue, edited by Carol Sandevoir.
