As soon as you get off at the Aubervilliers – Front populaire station, an unusual tension is evident. Numerous police officers run to arrest young people at random. Others, with Palestinian team scarves around their necks, hurry on.
Coming out of the ground, Brahim, 22 years old, is reassured: “Ah there we are at peace” he whispers when he sees around thirty Palestinian flags flying in the square where a rally against the holding of the France-Israel match a stone’s throw away, at the Stade de France, will begin this Thursday, November 14 at 6 p.m. There are more than 500 of them mobilizing. “The authorities wanted to push us back 2 km from the Stade de France, we have to make ourselves heard,” proclaims Inès, resident of Saint-Denis, before intoning “Palestine will live, Palestine will win”.
A tense context around the match
The police headquarters has in fact decided to relocate the gathering initially planned in front of the Dionysian town hall. One of the signs of the maximum tension surrounding the meeting. A few hundred meters from the Place du Front populaire – passing through a specific route, with CRS blocking access to several streets as soon as they leave the Place du Front populaire – a first roadblock filters arrivals. The police, 4,000 of whom have been deployed around the stadium, are searching with more zeal than usual.
Special atmosphere where the police are clearly more numerous than the supporters of the two teams on this Thursday evening in November. An FFF employee deciphers “Clearly this low attendance is due to the boycott. » And not a disenchantment between the blues and its public, after subpar performances? The federation employee continues: “The Parc des Princes was full in September for France-Italy. How can we not see a cause and effect link? »
In this heavy context around the match, the security agents are on edge. At certain screening points around the stadium, the instruction to prohibit any flag other than those of the two teams is understood as the prohibition of all distinctive signs other than those of the French team.
However, despite this problem, in the corridors of the Stade de France, the Israeli flags are clearly visible. Not enough, however, to prevent whistles in a very hollow stadium during the announcement of the Israeli composition and its anthem. These scenes will recur during the possession phases from the start of the match.
A few minutes later, a fight broke out in the North Stand, that of the group of supporters of the French Irrésistibles. According to the first information reaching us, a group would have started the scuffle by attacking the supporters of the Blues. On X (ex-twitter) videos seem to show that the attackers are shouting “Israel will live, Israel will overcome.” In another, individuals draped in Israeli flags can clearly be seen kicking cowering spectators. Several spectators, including members of the French Irrésistibles, were quickly arrested.
For several months, the holding of this match in France (Belgium relocated its meeting with Israel to Hungary in September) and in public has been debated. And the level of security has increased tenfold since the clashes in Amsterdam on the night of November 7 to 8. Following the match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv, dozens of Israeli supporters were attacked in the streets of the Dutch capital. Earlier, Maccabi Tel Aviv hooligans sang racist chants such as “All Arabs must die.”
The French authorities feared the same scenario Thursday evening in Saint-Denis. Especially since some had promised to fight it out. On Wednesday, on their social networks, the Zionist and fascist movement of Betar published a photo of two hooded men, bats in their hands, with the description “We will remain in the streets of France. Tomorrow we will be at the match.”
The Israeli anthem whistled
In reaction to the clashes in Amsterdam, Emmanuel Macron insisted on being present, just like his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande. For Caroline Yadan, Macronist MP for the French Abroad constituency including Israel, their “presence at the Stade de France this evening carries a powerful symbol of solidarity and support”.
Exactly what the rebellious MP for the constituency Éric Coquerel lambasted two hours earlier, 2 kilometers away: “Let’s imagine a France-Russia match here, can we imagine for a single second the President of the Republic going there? Of course not. »
“They wanted to play it “sport above conflicts, above politics” but we are not fooled, this match is political”, adds Sonia Feyman of the French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP). We are not targeting footballers or people but institutions. Israeli sports institutions are part of a system based on the oppression of the Palestinian people. »
Around 8 p.m., the speeches end and then half of the activists present begin to head towards the Stade de France. They will not go 100 meters, a CRS cordon welcoming them. For half an hour, the group faced the police without the slightest provocation. The activists will eventually turn back at 8:45 p.m., which is the start time of the meeting. Although none were planning to watch the game.
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