France-Israel match taking place against 'very difficult political, social backdrop'

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00:00Security is said to be tight in the French capital ahead of a France-Israel Nations League

00:04match at the Stade de France.

00:05Four thousand police officers will be deployed around the Stade de France, with another one

00:10and a half thousand on the city's public transport.

00:15Tensions running high following last week's football match in Amsterdam when violence

00:19broke out between Israeli fans and pro-Palestinian supporters.

00:25For more on this story, we can bring in Paul Smith, Associate Professor in French and

00:29Francophone Studies at the University of Nottingham.

00:32Thank you so much for joining us here on France 24.

00:35Clearly a lot of security ahead of this highly anticipated match tonight.

00:40Who's attending?

00:42Well, I suspect there won't be many Israeli supporters, but certainly there will be,

00:46we're talking about 25,000 tickets in a very large stadium.

00:51But amongst the more prominent supporters or the most prominent attendees will be

00:55Professor Macron, sorry, President Macron, as well as the Prime Minister and Macron's

01:01immediate predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande are due to be attending

01:06the match as well.

01:08OK, so three French presidents, two former, one current are due to attend this match.

01:13And this match, of course, comes a day after a controversial gala was held in the French

01:18capital where Israel's far-right finance minister was invited.

01:21Clearly, a lot of people in this city frustrated that that gala was allowed to take place.

01:28Yes, it's the match, the gala, all taking place against the backdrop, obviously, of

01:33what's going on in Gaza, but also that, of course, is generating tensions within France.

01:39Yesterday was also the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 2015.

01:44And more broadly speaking, a lot of tension, particularly amongst French Jews about their

01:50position in French society, a rise in the number of anti-Semitic attacks in France.

01:56So a very tense situation, generally speaking, in France for French Jews, but also for French

02:03Muslims as well, that this is a very difficult political and social backdrop that the match

02:10is taking place against.

02:13Paul Smith, France has a sizable Jewish population, a sizable Muslim population as well.

02:19Is that why Paris's messaging, its handling on how to support this conflict, who to support

02:27in this conflict?

02:27Is that what's complicated Paris's position?

02:31Yes, I think that's part of it.

02:33I mean, to go back to where we are in the more general situation, we've seen some shifts

02:38in French politics over the last few years and more generally a sense of anxiety, particularly

02:45amongst French Jews, even before the outbreak of the violence in Gaza, that there's a sense

02:52of, up to a certain point, alienation in France.

02:56Very large numbers of French Jews taking Aliyah, the call to return to Israel, 6,000 every year

03:03over the last 10 years, a much higher figure than we ever saw before.

03:07And that kind of anxiety is very clearly there, but also, of course, a reconfiguration

03:15as well in French politics where the French far right, we were talking earlier on about

03:19Marine Le Pen, how they are now posing as the champions of protecting French Jews from

03:27anti-Semitism, in particular a number of high profile French Jewish figures in the last

03:34elections saying that they would support the Rassemblement Nationale these days.

03:39So there's a ferment there that's very much present.

03:45You mentioned a large French Jewish population, but also something like, well, we don't know

03:50the exact figures, but six million people in France who are Muslims.

03:56So that's a very big population.

03:57So that's a potential source of ferment.

04:02So that's not to say, by the way, that six million French Muslims are fermenting are

04:08difficult, not at all.

04:09But it is the situation that the government has to respond to.

04:14Indeed.

04:14And we've also seen, it's not just in France where far right figures have suddenly become

04:19backers of Israel, but this is a Europe-wide phenomenon, isn't it?

04:25Yes, it is.

04:26Yes.

04:26And the support for Israel is the kind of the, I see it as part of the sort of knock

04:32on effect of the impact of the Great Replacement Theory that a lot of far right wing leaders

04:39are falling in with.

04:41And also even figures from the more traditional right, particularly in France, but elsewhere,

04:46also kind of stating this idea that European civilization has this, they use the expression

04:53Judeo-Christian foundation.

04:56And that's, you know, that's now becoming a very commonplace language for identifying

05:03with one particular group within this situation rather than another.

05:09And that's emerging more and more.

05:13Paul Smith, thank you so much for joining us on the program today.

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