France-Israel match marked by scuffles, booing and a record-low attendance
A pre-match protest and minor scuffles between fans took place as France faced Israel in a poorly-attended Uefa Nations League match on Thursday evening.
Only 16,611 fans were in attendance at the 80,000 capacity stadium, mostly due to security concerns and a call for boycott, in what was the lowest turnout ever for a French national team match at the Stade de France in Paris.
The game ended in a goalless draw and was marked by some incidents inside the stadium.
There was audible booing from some fans during the Israeli national anthem ahead of the game and, about ten minutes into the first half, confrontations broke out between scores of matchgoers.
Videos shared on social media showed Israeli fans, some with their faces covered and with Israeli flags draped on their backs, attacking French fans.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Stewards restored calm a few minutes later and established a security cordon.
Around 40 arrests took place around the Stade de France, and 24 of them resulted in police custody, but for "nothing serious," according to police sources.
During the game, Israeli fans chanted "Free the hostages" and "Hamas, Hamas, we're fucking you".
A handful of French fans unfurled Palestinian flags during the game although they had been banned, before they were confiscated by security officers.
Around 4,000 security personnel were deployed in and around the stadium, following violence in Amsterdam last week during a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax.
Clashes erupt in the stands of the Stade de France during France-Israel nations league football match. pic.twitter.com/jX00qE3jD7
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 14, 2024
President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Michel Barnier and former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy attended the match.
Joshua Zarka, Israeli ambassador to Paris, was also at the game, while Ronen Bar, the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, was in France to supervise the security of Israeli players and fans.
Macron held phone calls with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the game to talk through security measures that were put in place.
"We will not give in to antisemitism anywhere and violence, including in the French Republic, will never prevail, and neither will intimidation," the French president declared on BFMTV a few hours before the match.
'The game of shame'
Before the game, hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators held a peaceful protest in Seine-Saint-Denis, two kilometres away from the Stade de France.
"In the metro, I have seen people, despite the demonstration being authorised, who are stopped and checked only because they are wearing a keffiyeh," Olivia Zemor, head of EuroPalestine, told Middle East Eye during the protest.
'It is mind-boggling that at a time when Israel is increasing its aggression on Gaza... not only is this match being held, but the president of the republic is present'
- Eric Coquerel, France Unbowed MP
Zemor said demonstrators had "already won" due to the low turnout at the game, which was the subject of a call for boycott by various organisations and left-wing politicians because of Israel's war on Gaza and Lebanon.
"We have understood that we are increasingly becoming an Israeli colony, but people will not stand it much longer," Zemor added.
Eric Coquerel, a left-wing MP belonging to France Unbowed, was among those present at the protest.
He told MEE that "the match should have been cancelled, and at the very least, it should have been held somewhere else, in an empty stadium and without French officials present."
On Friday, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau had rejected the option of a relocation, stressing that France was "not backing down because that would amount to giving up in the face of threats of violence and antisemitism."
Stade de France is practically empty in Paris as heroic French fans boycott this charade: no one should ‘play sport’ with the genocidal israelis @UEFA pic.twitter.com/tqmX66Kfkb
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) November 15, 2024
"It is mind-boggling that at a time when Israel is increasing its aggression on Gaza, expanding colonisation, bombing Lebanon, and targeting French interests in Jerusalem by arresting officers, not only is this match being held, but the president of the republic is present, even though it's a second-rate match," Coquerel told MEE.
Last week, two French security officials with diplomatic status were briefly detained by Israeli authorities as France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit the French-administered Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives in occupied East Jerusalem.
Paris strongly condemned the incident and summoned the Israeli ambassador.
Relations between France and Israel have soured in recent months, particularly since Macron called for an end to the supply of offensive weapons to Israel.
The government also recently attempted to ban Israeli weapons firms from exhibiting at a trade fair in Paris - though the decision was reversed by a French court.
Hassan, a 19-year-old student who joined the protesters, described the game as "the game of shame".
"It is being used by the French government to strengthen ties with Israel," he told MEE.
Gabriel, a member of the Tsedek Decolonial Jewish Collective who also attended the protest, accused the French president of confusing the Jews of France with the Israeli government.
"If Macron says that he is [attending the game] to support the Jewish community of Amsterdam, it is a very clumsy support because it is once again associating us with the policies of the genocidal Israeli state and this is a vector of antisemitism as well," he told MEE.
'Green light for massacres'
Last week, violence erupted in Amsterdam in the run-up to Maccabi Tel Aviv's five-goal defeat to Ajax.
According to Dutch locals and police, Maccabi fans had torn down Palestinian flags on private property, threatened locals and threw projectiles at passers by.
'This match and the participation of Macron, Hollande and Sarkozy is part of France's complicity in the ongoing genocide'
- Salah Hamouri, French-Palestinian lawyer
They were also filmed singing racist chants against Arabs, leading to a response by locals, including members of the Moroccan community, in which dozens of Maccabi fans were injured, including at least one fan who was forced into a canal.
At the demonstration in Paris, Salah Hamouri, a French-Palestinian lawyer who was deported from Jerusalem by Israel in 2022 after spending many years in prison, also accused the French president of sending a political message of support for Israel by attending the match.
"This match and the participation of Macron, Hollande and Sarkozy is part of France's complicity in the ongoing genocide. It is a diplomatic green light given to the Israeli occupier for all its actions in Palestine and Lebanon and for it to continue its massacres in Palestine and in Lebanon," he told MEE.
"Today, the low turn-out at the stadium shows that the public opinion in France is in favour of the Palestinian cause, and that the people support the people.
"It shows that the voice of the Palestinian people has been heard, and that a boycott needs to be implemented."
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
