Thousands in Paris protest controversial gala organised by Israel’s far-right

Protest comes ahead of the France-Israel football match in Paris, where Palestinian flags have been banned.

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Thousands of protesters gathered in Paris on Wednesday evening to rally against a controversial gala organised by Israel’s far-right.

The demonstration coincided with growing tensions ahead of a football match between France and Israel scheduled for Thursday.

The rally, organised by multiple pro-Palestinian groups and the far-left France Unbowed Party (LFI), was a direct response to the “Israel is Forever” gala, which was set to raise funds for Israel.

The event, which took place at a secret location in Paris, had been advertised as featuring high-profile guests, including Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. However, Smotrich cancelled his appearance last minute. Known for his extreme stance on Gaza, Smotrich has previously advocated for the annexation of the West Bank and made controversial remarks regarding the expulsion of Arabs during Israel’s founding.

Activists like Salim, a member of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, expressed outrage at the event, accusing it of inciting racial hatred and dehumanising Palestinians.

“They're inviting people who make comments that incite racial hatred, who compare Palestinians to animals,” Salim said.

Protests were further inflamed by the refusal of French authorities to cancel the gala. Authorities claimed the event posed “no major threat to public order,” a statement that angered protestors and left-wing politicians.

Thomas Portes, an MP from France Unbowed, voiced his opposition, demanding the event’s cancellation. “People are going to raise money to fund the Israeli army, which then massacres children in Palestine. This is unacceptable,” Portes said.

Although the protest remained largely peaceful, several stores, including a McDonald’s and a Carrefour grocery store, were vandalised. The situation remained tense as another pro-Palestinian demonstration is scheduled for today, just before the football match kicks off.

Adding to the tension, Betar, a faction of Likud, Israel’s far-right nationalist party, announced its intention to gather around the stadium. With fears of potential clashes growing, authorities have deployed an unprecedented number of officers for the football match.

A total of 4,000 police officers will be on duty for the event, a highly unusual move for a sporting match.

“Just to see the sheer amount of police for the match tomorrow, scares me a little,” said Benjamin-Ange, an activist for Tsedek, a leftist Jewish organisation.

Moreover, following last week’s unrest at a Netherlands match, French authorities have banned spectators from bringing the Palestinian flag to a France-Israel football match today.

"Only French and Israeli flags and messages supporting the teams will be allowed. Stadiums are no place for political messages – it’s the law," Paris prefect Laurent Nunez told French media.

 

 

 

 

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Security personnel at Stade de France will subject fans to security searches and ID checks twice around the stadium in Saint-Denis, a northern Parisian suburb. Anyone who refuses the checks will not be admitted.

Plainclothes police will patrol the stadium during the match, and officials will leave the stands close to the field empty. A special police team, RAID, will provide security for the Israeli football players.

Israeli authorities have advised their citizens not attend the match.

According to local media reports, French President Emmanuel Macron himself plans to attend the match, which takes place amid Israel’s continuing offensive on Gaza, in which Israel has killed over 43,000 people and injured nearly 103,000 others, most of them women and children.

Last Friday, violent incidents erupted around the UEFA Europa League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam in the Netherlands, when Israeli fan groups targeted Palestinian supporters both before and during the game. Fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv were reported to have removed Palestinian flags from the streets of Amsterdam, and some even attacked Arab taxi drivers with sticks, assuming they were supporters of Palestine.

The disturbances escalated further during a minute of silence held for the victims of floods in Spain, when Israeli fans used the moment to chant anti-Arab and genocidal slogans. This behavior continued both inside and outside the stadium, where supporters voiced inflammatory remarks and targeted individuals of Arab and Palestinian descent.

A senior member of an anti-Zionist Jewish group, Anna Joseph of Erev Rav, a Jewish collective in the Netherlands, spoke out about the events, attributing the violence to Israeli fan groups. In an interview with Anadolu, Joseph emphasised that Israel as a state and Judaism as a religion are distinct, warning that conflating the two puts both Jews and Palestinian rights defenders at risk.

Joseph described several alarming incidents that took place during the match, including the vandalism of Palestinian property, the tearing down and burning of a Palestinian flag, and a physical assault on a taxi driver. She also highlighted reports of racist and genocidal chants on public transportation.