Paris — Security forces were on alert Thursday in Paris ahead of a soccer match between the French national soccer team and the visiting Israeli team. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged demonstrations in the city on Wednesday evening, and there are fears of a possible repeat of last week’s violence and Anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam.
Thousands of protesters marched Wednesday evening to express their opposition to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including Nacim Bordiah, 46, who said France “should boycott the match.”
“We prevented Russia and South Africa from participating in the Olympics,” he said, referring to Russia’s current ban from the global sporting event due to the war in Ukraine and the exclusion of South Africans under the regime of white apartheid. “Why not Israel now?
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The march was peaceful, but tensions were high following last week’s anti-Semitic violence in the streets of Amsterdam following a match between Israeli and Dutch teams.
Among the Israeli fans who came to support Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam, some marched in the streets before the match chanting “Death to the Arabs” and tore up a Palestinian flag. But after the match, crowds cornered Israeli fans and bystanders, beating and kicking them and throwing one into a canal.
The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, condemned this violence, affirming in the process that “Jewish Israeli supporters were hunted down and attacked via anti-Semitic calls on social networks and in the street”.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the violence a “terrible anti-Semitic attack” and declared himself “deeply ashamed” for the country’s capital, while his Israeli and American counterparts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden, also expressed their disgust and horror at this violence. attacks targeting Jews.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mayor Halsema said “a fuller picture” had emerged from the clashes in Amsterdam last week, “and all kinds of terrible things happened”, but she stressed that this “in no way negates” that an appeal was made. in his town for a “Jew hunt”.
Clashes have persisted since then, despite a temporary ban on protests in Amsterdam, with police breaking up a demonstration that sought to defy the ban as recently as Wednesday evening. A train in Amsterdam was also attacked, with a man shouting “Jewish Cancer!” »
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In Paris, only about a quarter of the tickets available for Thursday night’s match were sold, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Wednesday, and only about 150 Israeli fans were expected.
But French authorities have warned that “zero risk does not exist”.
They deployed around 4,000 police and other security forces to patrol around the city and the Stade de France, the national stadium where the match was taking place in the northern suburbs of Paris.
Real Tucker And
contributed to this report.
