Violence mars a tense France-Israel soccer match near Paris

(JNS) At a soccer game between the national teams of Israel and France near Paris on Thursday, at least one brawl in the stands and several low-intensity clashes occurred outside the Stade de France venue.

Some 4,000 police officers and 1,600 security guards deployed to uphold public order. The visiting underdogs fended off the fabled French side and secured a 0:0 result. The UEFA Nations League match, held in the heavily Muslim suburb of Saint-Denis north of Paris, came a week after mass assaults of Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam following a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax.

No serious injuries were reported at Stade de France, where the attendance of 16,611 was a record low for the 80,000-capacity facility. Israeli fans were spread out across the stands.

Outside the stadium, several dozen anti-Israeli protesters were filmed following a group of Israeli fans and shouting provocative rhetoric, including: “F**k you, shit Zionists.” Riot police quickly ordered the hecklers to turn around.

Local spectators heckled the Israeli supporters at the stadium, and many jeered when Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” was played.

 

Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security service, was in France to supervise how the Israeli players and fans were protected.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Michel Barnier, former President François Hollande and former President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Israeli Ambassador Joshua Zarka, were also present at the game.

The Israel team will host Belgium in Budapest on Sunday evening. Israel will enter the relegation playoffs if the team beats Belgium by three or more goals. Otherwise Israel will be relegated.

In Amsterdam on Nov. 7, a heavy police presence helped protect some 2,500 fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv. But later that evening, at least 100 Muslim men staged a coordinated mass assault, which some term a pogrom, on fans in the city center. Some 25 Israelis were hurt, five of them moderately and the rest lightly.

The events have unleashed an acrimonious debate on Muslim immigration to the Netherlands, as well as political debate in which anti-Israel politicians said Maccabi fans instigated the violence and accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide in Gaza. The Amsterdam assaults shocked many people in the Netherlands and beyond, who consider them one of the worst manifestations of antisemitic hatred.

On Wednesday, police and anti-Israel activists clashed at an illegal anti-Israel rally in Paris, held without permit.