Paris
CNN
—

With thousands of extra security personnel deployed on the streets of Paris and a “double ring” of security thrown around the national stadium, France is taking no chances with Thursday’s soccer match with Israel.

After shocking scenes of violence in Amsterdam last week – with charges to organize “hunting” of Jews after days of unrest with fans of the Israeli club Maccabi-Tel Aviv, the French capital is determined to avoid a repeat.

About 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium employees will be deployed to police the match, with about 2,500 of those officers around the stadium, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said.

Last year’s French Cup final was attended by about 3,000 police and 1,400 staff, reports CNN affiliate BFMTV.

The elite RAID police unit will be present on the ground, according to France’s interior minister, and an “anti-terrorist security perimeter” will ensure two separate identity checks and searches of participants.

This match comes just days after several nights of clashes in Amsterdam, when at least five people were treated in hospital and dozens were arrested after Israeli fans were attacked following Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 5-0 defeat in against Ajax, in violence condemned as anti-Semitic by the Russian authorities. Holland and Israel.

Tensions had risen before last Thursday’s match in the Dutch capital. Several videos on social media showed Maccabi fans chanting anti-Arab slurs, praising Israeli military strikes in Gaza and shouting “to hell with the Arabs”. Maccabi supporters also tore down flags, vandalized a taxi and set fire to a Palestinian flag, Amsterdam police said.

Thursday’s UEFA Nations League match between France and Israel will be played at the Stade de France, the centerpiece of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and around 20,000 fans are expected to attend, according to Nunez. The police chief added that there was low demand for tickets to the match at a stadium that can accommodate around 80,000 spectators.

Supporters of the Israeli national team will likely differ from the supporters at the Maccabi match in Amsterdam – some of whom have a reputation for hooliganism and violence.

On Sunday, Israel specifically warned its citizens not to attend the match due to fears for their safety. Even so, officials are determined the game will go ahead.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau refused to cancel or move the match, telling MPs that doing so would be tantamount to “caving in to the sowers of hate”. Instead, the country’s iconic stadium will be transformed into a veritable fortress.

But the match will not only be notable for its security.

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to attend, an unusual move for a match featuring a relatively minor player on the world football stage. The Elysee Palace told CNN affiliate BFMTV that its presence would “send a message of brotherhood and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic acts that followed the match in Amsterdam.”

Macron will be joined by his prime minister and two former presidents, Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, in a rare show of unity.

This game comes at a particularly tense time for politics and sport in France.

Last week, Retaileau demanded answers from Paris Saint-Germain, the city’s main club, after fans staged a huge “Free Palestine” display in the stands at a Champions League tie.

After the match, Retaileau posted on X that clubs should be careful that “politics does not come to the detriment of sport, which must always remain a force for unity”, promising in a subsequent radio interview that “nothing was out of table” in terms. of sanctions against clubs that refuse to toe the line and of policing “political” banners.

The minister struck an aggressive tone in his first months in office, and his response to the Amsterdam attacks was no different. In an unprecedented move even after last year’s October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza that followed, Retaileau asked prosecutors to investigate a far-left lawmaker’s post about the violence in the Dutch capital.

Marie Mesmeur posted that the Israelis attacked in Amsterdam “were not lynched because they were Jewish, but because they were racist and advocated genocide.”

The official French response could not be more different.

Macron said the incidents “recalled the most shameful hours in history”, in sentiments mirrored by senior French officials in a wave of X posts.

France – ca much of Europe and north america – has faced growing anti-Semitism in recent years, which has only been exacerbated by the October 7 attacks and Israel’s bloody campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

In France in particular, less than 1 percent of the French population is Jewish, yet Jews are the victims of 57 percent of all racist and anti-religious attacks in the country, Retaileau told lawmakers on Tuesday.

France is home to the largest Jewish population in Europe and one of the largest Muslim populations on the continent. In recent years, French far-right politicians have clamored to claim the moral high ground around anti-Semitism.

All this comes amid a diplomatic row between Paris and Tel Aviv. Just this week, the Israeli ambassador in Paris was summoned to the French foreign ministry after two French police officers were briefly detained iin East Jerusalem occupied by Israel.

The French government has tried to walk a difficult path between responding to Hamas attacks on Israel and rising domestic anti-Semitism and outrage over Israel’s destruction in Gaza and elsewhere. However, in light of the recent events in Amsterdam, he is keen to show his commitment to protecting French Jews: Thursday’s match provides the perfect opportunity.