By GB News (World News) | Created at 2024-11-14 07:51:06 | Updated at 2024-11-21 22:12:44
1 week ago
Pro-Palestine protesters clashed with police in Paris last night ahead of a football match between France and Israel later today.
A large group engaged in an altercation with police in the French capital in which batons were drawn and tear gas used.
It comes as an "Israel is forever" event was being held in the city centre, with Israel's controversial finance minister Bezalel Smotrich due to attend.
Smotrich has come under fire after claiming Donald Trump's victory in the US election meant "the time has come" to annex the West Bank and that further extension of Israeli sovereignty over the region was the only way to remove the "threat" of a Palestinian state.
People attended a demonstration in support of Palestinians, ahead of France's football match with Israel
Reuters
People attend a demonstration in support of Palestinians
Reuters
People took part in a protest against the controversial gala organised by the association 'Israel Forever' in Paris
Getty
French riot policemen outside the Stade-de-France in Paris ahead of tonight's match
Getty
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
Reuters
Tonight's Nations League match at the Stade de France comes at a tense moment, with diplomatic relations between French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu strained by Israel's war in Gaza.
Police chiefs confirmed around 4,000 officers will secure the event, deployed in the stadium, outside the ground and on public transport. It comes after Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and locals clashed in Amsterdam last week, with five Israeli football fans injured.
Co-founder of the Movement for French Jews, a right-wing Zionist youth group, Aurélien Bernheïm said around 30 of his organisation's members would attend the match, adding: "But I wont hide it, many of these young people were scared to go as they had in their heads these appalling images from Amsterdam."
President of the Associations of Palestinians in Ile de France Walid Attalah called for the match to be cancelled, saying: "Russia has been banned because there was the occupation of Ukraine, it was illegal, there were war crimes, but Israel is never sanctioned for what it does."
Displaced Palestinians make their way after fleeing the northern part of Gaza
Reuters
It comes after Human Rights Watch said Israeli authorities have caused a forced displacement of Palestinian people in Gaza to an extent that constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israeli authorities have previously rejected such accusations, and say their forces operate in compliance with international law.
Israel invaded the Gaza Strip last year after Hamas-led gunmen attacked communities in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and abducting more than 250 as hostages.
Since then, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 43,500 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and destroyed much of the enclave's infrastructure, forcing most of the 2.3 million population to move several times.
Human Rights Watch said the displacement of Palestinians "is likely planned to be permanent in the buffer zones and security corridors", an action it said would amount to "ethnic cleansing."
