- by foxnews
- 22 Nov 2024
Specifically for sports, Israel is set to face France in a UEFA Nations League match on Thursday, and French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to attend.
"There's a context, tensions, that make that match a high-risk event for us," Laurent Nuñez, Paris police chief, said on French news channel BFM TV.
"There will be an anti-terrorist security perimeter around the stadium."
Nuñez added that French organizers have been in contact with Israeli authorities in preparation of the match.
These extra measures come after Israeli supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv FC were targets of violence in Amsterdam this past Thursday during the team's match against Ajax. Videos and pictures were all over social media of multiple fights in the streets of Amsterdam.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon gave an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital on Thursday night.
"We are seeing a pogrom against Jews and Israelis unfold in Amsterdam," Danon said. "In 2024. This must stop. 'Globalize the intifada' was not just a slogan for these terrorist supporters. I urge the Dutch government to help all Israelis and Jewish people immediately. It's time to respond with force against these barbaric rioters."
In the United States, the Israeli Embassy to the U.S. posted a graphic video of the violence, saying "the mob who targeted those innocent Israelis has proudly shared their [violent] acts."
Meanwhile, Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., condemned the violence in a post on X.
"The hysterical and hyperbolic demonization of Israel has led to a global outbreak of antisemitic vitriol, vandalism, and violence," he wrote. "The single most monstrous manifestation of antisemitism is a pogrom that is presently unfolding against hundreds of Jews who were cheering on the Tel Aviv Football Club in Amsterdam."
"Those inciting antisemitism now have the blood of a 21st-century pogrom on their hands," he wrote. "The situation is so dire that the Israeli government is dispatching rescue teams for Jews in danger. I am sick to my stomach that a pogrom is happening in the 21st century."
This incident comes 13 months after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel, killing and kidnapping hundreds.
There isn't any talk about canceling the France-Israel match this week.
"I think that for a symbolic reason we must not yield, we must not give up," French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said, using the recent Paris Summer Olympics as an example of a way for people around the world to come together through sports.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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