IThere will be no crowds in the aisles of the Stade de France this November 14 in Saint-Denis. And not only because the Israel team, which meets France in a League of Nations match, is not a big name in international football. This is also due to the tense climate surrounding this meeting after the serious incidents of October 31 in Amsterdam where supporters of Maccabi Tel-Aviv were violently attacked and injured even though they themselves had lit the first fuses with anti-songs. -Arabs.
The fear of new incidents in Paris has classified this match as “high risk” but it will take place under a strong police presence, while on the political level, the tension between Paris and Tel Aviv, fueled by a diplomatic incident in Jerusalem- East during the November 7 visit of Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, is at its lowest. And if the public will be sparse, two distinguished guests will be present in the official gallery: the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and the Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
Ambassador summoned
“It is about sending a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic acts which followed the match in Amsterdam,” said the Élysée. But the presence of the two heads of the French executive in Saint-Denis must also be seen as a signal of appeasement towards Israel while its ambassador in Paris, Joshua Zarka, was summoned Tuesday to the Quai d'Orsay to explain himself on the incident provoked by the Israeli police on November 7 in a French property in Jerusalem.
“It is about sending a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic acts which followed the match in Amsterdam”
While the minister was about to enter the domain of Eléona, one of the four “national domains” which France inherited in Jerusalem and which shelters on the Mount of Olives a Carmelite community under diplomatic protection, Israeli police officers, who entered armed and without authorization, arrested two French gendarmes in civilian clothes before releasing them, causing the departure of Jean-Noël Barrot. According to the Israeli authorities, this act was aimed at “protecting” the minister and the French embassy had been notified.
Chirac and Macron, already
This version is denied by Paris, which evokes a disregard for diplomatic practices, deciding to summon the Israeli ambassador to Paris on Tuesday to the Quai d'Orsay. Joshua Zarka was reminded “that France will not tolerate Israeli forces entering areas for which it is responsible, for which it ensures protection, and it strongly reaffirms that this incident must never happen again.”
This type of Franco-Israeli friction is not the first. In 2020, Emmanuel Macron ordered Israeli police officers to leave Sainte-Anne Church, another location of the French presence in Jerusalem, after the latter attacked French law enforcement officers. But the most famous episode dates back to 1996 when Jacques Chirac, then president, lost his temper against Israeli soldiers who pressed him too closely during his stroll through the old city of Jerusalem and Sainte-Anne.
“Welcome to France”
The context of this fall of 2024 is obviously the endless war that Israel is waging in Gaza and Lebanon under criticism from its Western allies including France. And it was to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and “respect for international humanitarian law” that Jean-Noël Barrot went to his new counterpart Israel Katz on November 7, demanding “a demanding dialogue”. polite formula to mark French disapproval of the Israeli refusal to open any political perspective.
“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being used to attack the Jews of France”
On the Israeli side, anger mixed with anxiety is rising in the face of the resurgence of anti-Semitic acts in France and Europe. “Israeli supporters and footballers are welcome in France”, attempts to clear the air by the French Minister for Europe Benjamin Haddad, who judges that “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being used to attack the Jews of France”. But Israeli authorities have warned their nationals that it would be unwise to attend the France-Israel match, let alone display signs of their Jewishness.
The deployment of a “Free Palestine” banner at the Parc des Princes by PSG supporters during a Champions League match did not help the atmosphere. Nor the announcement – ultimately denied – of the arrival in Paris of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a figure of ultra Zionism, on the occasion of an “Israel forever” gala organized the day before the France-Israel match by personalities from extreme right.
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