Israeli supporters were chased and beaten in the streets of the Dutch capital, attacks which left 20 to 30 injured and sparked outrage in many Western capitals. Before the match, Maccabi fans chanted anti-Arab chants and burned a Palestinian flag in the central Dam Square.
Surveillance of places of worship
The French authorities, however, have categorically ruled out giving up the match, or relocating it as Belgium did in September.
“Some are calling for the France-Israel match to be relocated. I do not accept it: France is not backing down because that would amount to abdicating in the face of threats of violence and in the face of anti-Semitism,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau wrote on Friday on X.
Israel called on its fans on Sunday to avoid going to the Stade de France but around “a hundred Israeli supporters” will be present, according to a police source.
“I obviously tell them to come. All safety conditions are guaranteed in transport, at the entrance to the stadium, during the match. So I want to be both reassuring but at the same time very firm. For those who want to cause trouble, the response from the internal security forces will be extremely firm,” police prefect Laurent Nuñez said on France Info on Thursday.
In addition to the police, around 1,600 security agents will also be mobilized at the Stade de France and the RAID, the elite unit of the national police, is engaged in the security of the Israel team, locked in a bubble since his arrival in France on Monday.
The authorities plan to secure places of worship and Jewish communities in Paris and nearby suburbs, according to a note from the police headquarters (PP) consulted by AFP.
The PP also asks the police for increased vigilance in places where “supporters (of the Israeli selection) would be likely to travel” at Porte Maillot, “kosher restaurants in the 16th and 17th arrondissement” of the capital as well as Levallois-Perret.
The authorities also fear “groupings of young people from neighboring sensitive areas and the commission of acts of delinquency against the public and/or disturbances to public order”.
A stadium that will ring hollow?
The Saint-Denis enclosure (80,000 seats) will in any case ring particularly hollow since only 12,000 to 25,000 spectators are expected.
We are therefore heading towards the lowest attendance in the history of this stadium (36,842 spectators for France-New Zealand in 2003).
The stand of honor will, however, be well filled. President Emmanuel Macron will be there, to “send a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic acts which followed the match in Amsterdam”, according to his entourage.
His two predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, as well as Prime Minister Michel Barnier will attend the match, according to several media.
In the stadium, only French and Israeli flags will be allowed, and Palestinian banners, as well as “messages of a political nature”, will be banned, indicated Laurent Nuñez. Any other flag, even from French regions, will be banned, said a police source.
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