Paris –  Thousands of extra police officers are being deployed in and around Paris ahead of a France-Israel football match on Thursday which comes a week after violence exploded on the streets of Amsterdam. Pro-Palestinian groups are urging France against playing host to sporting teams of Israel while it is waging wars and deadly attacks in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, arguing that similar measures were taken against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, few have snapped up tickets for the match at the Stade de France, which is north of Paris, throwing into question for some the necessity of a large-scale police operation. Officials say security at the match will be heavily reinforced. Police officers will be deployed at Stade de France and across public transport networks. Measures are being beefed up in part to prevent the kind of clashes that broke out in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, before and after a football match between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Netherlands’s Ajax team.

Leopold Lambert, an editor and architect in the French capital, said, ⁠“The atmosphere in Paris, at least for people who both have Palestine and football in mind, is the desire for a strong solidarity action to happen, which probably will have to occur outside of the stadium given the massive police apparatus.” (Aljazeera)

Photo: France is deploying thousands of extra police officers in order to prevent clashes during the France-Israel game (Reuters)