If You Think Amsterdam was Bad, Wait Till You See What Happened in France

Europe's leaders are competing to outdo each other in proving their allegiance to Israel.

Photo by Olivier Darbonville on Unsplash

Last week, Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv fans descended upon the city of Amsterdam and wreaked havoc, terrorising Dutch citizens and engaging in violence and criminality. You can read about it all here.

This week, Israeli fans were set to attend a UEFA Nations League match against France, held in the Stade de France in Paris.

Citizens of France, like pretty much the whole world, are disgusted and fed up by Israel’s genocide in Gaza and violence throughout the Middle East, and they made their displeasure known. In the 80,000 seat stadium, less than 17,000 people attended, the lowest ever turnout for a national team game. French fans booed the Israeli national anthem (described as the anthem of the Zionist movement) and during the game Israeli fans chanted "Free the hostages" and "Hamas, Hamas, we're f*cking you".

Not to be outdone by his Dutch counterparts, Emmanuel Macron went even further in bowing to the diktats of the Israeli state—his subjugation so extreme, it would make contortionists blush.

Macron decided to attend the match his fellow countrymen would not, the Elysée saying that the President’s presence aimed to:

“show his entire and full support for the French team as he does every match” but also “send a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable acts of antisemitism that followed the match in Amsterdam”.

Considering that Monsieur Macron does not attend all French national football matches, even those at home, and despite that the faux claims of ‘anti-Semitic’ attacks in Amsterdam were thoroughly debunked by actual, verified footage, it seemed clear his attendance was to show his commitment to Israel and their continued lies against the citizens of Europe.

Why his servile behaviour was so deplorable was that on the very same day as the Maccabi Tel Aviv match in Amsterdam, French gendarmes were arrested and illegaly detained by Israeli forces in Jerusalem, on French sovereign territory, shortly before the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit. The incident happend at the Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives, one of four sites administered by France in Jerusalem, and which is under Paris’s responsibility and deemed part of France. The gendarmes were present awaiting M. Barrot’s visit, which Israeli security was informed about. As such, Israel’s actions amounted to invasion of French territory. They treated the guards with violence, pushing one to the ground, and arrested them despite being aware that the gendarmes were from the consulate and had diplomatic status.

Though M. Barot, who cancelled his visit, said outside the Church:

“This violation of the integrity of a site under French responsibility risks undermining the ties I had come to nurture with Israel at a time when we all need to move forward the region on the path to peace.”

Macron, himself, has remained silent.

The French did eventually - a few days later - summon the Israeli ambassador about the incident. France’s Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs reported on their website that:

The Ambassador was informed that the presence of armed Israeli security forces at the Eleona domain and the arrest of two gendarmes from the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem who hold diplomatic status were unacceptable, especially in the case of two countries with strong, bilateral relations and in the context of a visit whose goal was to de-escalate tensions. Measures will be taken to guarantee that no such acts happen again.

Considering that this isn’t the first time that Israel has pulled such stunts on French territory in Jerusalem with French ministers, and with the knowledge that Israel has ignored all 900 UN resolutions and is well-documented to simply lie about everything, Le Ministre de l'Europe et des Affaires Étrangères can rest assure that Israeli security well never violate sacred French territory again.

Against this backdrop, with not a word about his own French gendarmes (under international diplomatic protection) being assaulted and arrested, the intimidation and forced cancellation of his French Foreign Minister’s trip on French territory, Macron decided to go to Israel’s football match so show ‘solidarity’ and ‘fraternity’ with Israel.

He wasn’t the only one. Previous Presidents Sarkozy and Hollande also attended, none choosing to show solidarity to their own French citizens who boycotted the match in their thousands.

Palestine flags were banned in the Stade de France - the same country who marched for Charlie Hebdo - but Israeli flags were permitted. Which was useful, as when the Israeli football fans again decided to attack French fans in the stadium, they literally did so with Israeli flags draped over them, making it easy to see who the perpertrators of the violence were.

During the match, attended by President Macron and his predecessors, a French citizen was attacked by Israeli fans.

And echoing the events in Amsterdam, it was not the Israeli perpetrator who was arrested by French authorities, but the French victim of the violence—even as French citizens showed the police, in real time, what had occurred. All the while, with President Macron in attendance.

This is the video from the tweet. You can hear the French citizens telling the police what happened, only to be ignored.

To add insult to injury, Israeli fans filmed to have taken part in the attack, praised the French authorities for their actions.

Though, thankfully, the violence in France was less than that in Amsterdam - persumably as the French in utter disgust at IDF soldiers on genocide leave - kept away from the game, the message sent from the French leadership and French State authorities is just as dangerous, as it is exactly the same as the message sent by the Dutch: Israeli citizens can act with violence and impunity in France and should they resist, it will be French citizens who are arrested.

Just like Israeli citizens can act with violence and impunity in the Netherlands, and should they resist, it will be Dutch citizens who are arrested.

It seems Israel is orchestrating a series of stunts in Europe, in some sort of strange kind of loyalty test of European leaders, which places their own citizens as the tributes to be sacrificed. So far, European leadership has passed with flying colours.

This is a stark demonstration of how Israel’s sovereignty is now taking precedence over Europe's—sending a clear message that Europe’s sovereignty is increasingly subordinate to that of Israel’s, with the full consent of Europe’s leaders.