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French Soccer Team Avoids Sanctions for Massive ‘Free Palestine’ Banner Condemned by Interior Minister

Soccer Football – Champions League – Paris St Germain v Atletico Madrid – Parc des Princes, Paris, France – November 6, 2024 A banner on support of Palestine is displayed in the stands before the match. Photo: Reuters/Stephanie Lecocq

The French soccer team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) will not face potential sanctions after its fans unveiled an oversized banner with the slogan “Free Palestine” before kick-off of the team’s UEFA Champions League game on Wednesday, European soccer’s governing body said.

A UEFA spokesperson explained on Thursday that while the UEFA bans “provocative” or “insulting” political messages in stadiums, it does not consider the “Free Palestine” banner to be either one of those. “There will … be no disciplinary case because the banner that was unfurled cannot be in this case considered provocative or insulting,” a UEFA spokesperson said, as reported by Reuters.

Last year, the Scottish club Celtic was fined almost $19,000 after its fans waved Palestinian flags at a UEFA Champions League match.

The massive “Free Palestine” banner covered a large section of PSG’s home stadium of Parc des Princes in Paris on Wednesday before the Qatar-owned team lost in a Champions League match to their Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid. The letter “i” in the word “Palestine” was replaced with an image of the State of Israel, which was covered with the pattern of a black and white keffiyeh. The banner also showed a bloodstained Palestinian flag, a man with a keffiyeh scarf covering all his face except his eyes, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and the back of a man who had a Lebanese flag wrapped around him.

The banner was organized by the PSG’s hard-core fan group, the Paris Ultras Collective (CUP), and was shown above another banner that featured a slogan written in French: “War on the pitch but peace in the world.” During the match, PSG fans in the stands raised another banner that read: “Does a child’s life in Gaza mean less than another?” according to Reuters.

The banners were shown as Israel continued its military operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both Islamist terrorist groups seek Israel’s destruction and are backed by Iran.

The banner was also raised eight days before France and Israel compete in Paris against each other in a UEFA Nations League game, which pro-Palestinian activists are trying to have officials cancel because of Israel’s involvement.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau took to X on Thursday to condemn the “Free Palestine” banner at the soccer match a day earlier.

“I ask PSG to explain itself and the clubs to ensure that politics does not come to damage sport, which must always remain a source of unity,” Retailleau wrote.This tifo had no place in this stadium, and such messages are also prohibited by the regulations of the League and UEFA. If this were to happen again, we will have to consider banning tifos for clubs that do not enforce the rules.”

In an interview with Sud Radio following the match, Retailleau said the banner was “unacceptable.”

“I want to know more and now how this banner came to be unfurled. The Paris police chief (Laurent Nunez) explained what happened. We agreed on a certain number of things but I am demanding accountability,” he added.

PSG said in a statement on Wednesday night that it was not aware “of any plans to display such a message.”

“PSG emphasizes the Parc des Princes is — and must remain — a place of communion around a shared passion for football and firmly opposes any message of a political nature in the stadium,” the team said.

France has the largest Jewish community in Europe — and the third largest in the world, following the United States and Israel — but also the continent’s largest Muslim community.

The post French Soccer Team Avoids Sanctions for Massive ‘Free Palestine’ Banner Condemned by Interior Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser

Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect

i24 NewsBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.

Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.

She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.

Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.

US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.

Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.

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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine

The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.

Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.

Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.

It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.

Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.

Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.

A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.

The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.

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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.

Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.

The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”

“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.

An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.

A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.

HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED

Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.

Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.

Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.

The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.

In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.

On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.

“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.

Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.

Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.

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