Israel has issued a warning to its citizens wishing to attend sporting and cultural events involving Israelis this week after attacks on supporters of the country’s soccer team in Amsterdam this past week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying Israel has intelligence that pro-Palestinian groups abroad intend to harm Israelis in cities in France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Belgium, among others.
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.
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(REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini)
France will bolster its security for the match, and Paris police said on Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will ensure security measures are followed in and around the stadium as well as public transportation.
“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.”
ISRAELI SOCCER FANS TARGETED IN WAVE OF VIOLENCE IN AMSTERDAM
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.”
Fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv stage a pro-Israel demonstration at Dam Square ahead of the UEFA Europa League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, 2024. (Mouneb Taim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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.
Maccabi Tel Aviv FC supporters hold flags ahead of the Europa League soccer match against Ajax in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, 2024. (JEROEN JUMELET/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
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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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