A little over 24 hours before the match which tenses the country, between France and Israel, one man will be particularly watched: it is Bruno Retailleau. This match is a test for the new Minister of the Interior. His first real test of policing. Behind, we will also see if the famous spirit of the Olympic Games was just an enchanted parenthesis, as some have said, or if it lasts a little.
After all, it’s just football, it should remain football, whatever one thinks of the conflict in the Middle East. To my knowledge, it is not Benjamin Netanyahu who will be on the field in shorts and cleats. But above all, it is a test for France and for its honor.
The subject is anti-Semitism. We cannot ignore what happened a few days ago, very close to home, in Amsterdam. On the sidelines of the football match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv, we witnessed a real “Jew hunt” in the streets of Amsterdam. With this atrocious image of a man on the ground forced to shout: “I am not Jewish” to escape his attackers.
A risk of overflow?
So, I hear “yes, but ‘ultra’ supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv uttered racist insults”. It’s true ! It is indisputable and unbearable, except that it is not them, the ultras who were targeted by the violence, but many Israelis isolated in the streets of Amsterdam. This does not respond to the logic of a hooligan fight, but rather the logic of a pogrom and that is the nightmare.
It is a historic responsibility to avoid it. We must listen to the King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander, who said the right words. He said: “We failed in our duty to the Jews during World War II and we failed again the other night.” If France could avoid this kind of shame, that would be good.
It is first and foremost the responsibility of Bruno Retailleau who was very clear on anti-Semitism. He said anti-Semitic attacks represent 57% of all racist and anti-religious attacks in the countryfor a population which represents 1% of the total. “It’s not the Republic, it’s not France,” he insisted. He’s right. Now they are words, it’s up to him to prove.
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