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Israel faces France in a Nations League football match in Paris on Thursday surrounded by a huge security operation to prevent a repetition of the attacks on Israeli fans in Amsterdam last week.
The Paris police chief has described the match at the Stade de France as “high risk” and Israel has urged its citizens to avoid the fixture, which authorities fear could become another flashpoint following the violence in the Netherlands.
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The security context has clearly impacted the attendance, with only around 13,000 spectators expected at the game in a venue that holds up to 80,000, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Wednesday.
Supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv club were chased by men on scooters and beaten after a Europa League match against Ajax in Amsterdam on November 7.
Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema called it a “poisonous cocktail” of anti-Semitism.
Dutch police said the violence came after Maccabi fans had set fire to a Palestinian flag the night before, and vandalised a taxi.
The mayor, however, stressed on Tuesday that “even though a more complete picture emerged” of the evening’s events, “and all sorts of terrible things happened, it in no way negates that a ‘hunt for Jews'” call had gone out.
The violence in Amsterdam took place with anti-Israeli sentiment and reported anti-Semitic acts across the world soaring as Israel wages wars against Iran-backed Islamist militants in Lebanon and Gaza.
Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders blamed the violence on “Muslims”.
France has the largest Muslim population in western Europe.
Several thousand people demonstrated in Paris on Wednesday evening against the holding of an “Israel is Forever” gala in the city organised by far-right figures.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and set off red flares, AFP photographs showed. Clashes broke out with police firing tear gas and some protesters damaged the window of a restaurant.
