Despite expectations that the new Belgian government, led by the nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), would lead a tougher policy in combating antisemitism and adopt a more understanding position toward Israel, it seems that nothing has changed in Brussels.
It’s the first Belgian government to be headed by nationalist Bart De Wever, and, therefore, fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism is low on the party’s list of priorities.
Due to the fact that Belgium – a country hosting the majority of the EU’s major institutions – has become one of Europe’s hot spots for antisemitism in recent years, tackling this problem should have been considered a priority. Instead, the term antisemitism was removed from the text of the new federal coalition agreement and replaced by the general term “racism.”
Divorcing antisemitism from racism legislation
When Sam van Rooy, a member of another Flemish nationalist party, Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest), last week presented to the Federal Parliament a motion on strengthening the fight against antisemitism and suggested in it, among other things, to separate “antisemitism” from “racism” due to its unique character, the delegates of the coalition voted against it and a Jewish deputy from N-VA left the Parliament hall while the voting on the proposal was taking place.
When David Rosenberg, a Jewish representative of Vlaams Belang in Antwerp, criticized N-VA Antwerp official Paul Cordy for participating in a religious event organized by a former socialist politician who converted to Islam and since had adopted anti-LGBTQ positions, Rosenberg was attacked by Cordy for his “broken Flemish,” a blunt antisemitic expression.
Van Rooy, whose party was not asked to join De Weber’s government, is determined to expose the new government’s hypocrisy regarding antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
“This brand new government will probably not be as bad as the previous government on issues regarding Israel,” van Rooy told The Jerusalem Post, “but that’s not very difficult since the former government was extremely left-wing and anti-Israeli.
“The new government declared, for example, that it plans to ban the activities of Samidoun in Belgium for its ties with the PFLP. Samidoun is already forbidden in Germany. I will follow up on this issue closely and see that they really do it.
“But the new government said nothing about the Hind Rajab Foundation [HRF] in the coalition agreement. What I heard from them so far was that they do not see any reason to forbid [their] activities as they do not do anything illegal.”
About a month ago, van Rooy presented new Belgian Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden of the Christian Democratic and Flemish Party with information on the illegal activities of HRF, which persecutes Israeli officials and soldiers on Belgian and European soil, accusing them of war crimes.
Despite the detailed information in the dossier, the minister has yet to react to its content.
“I’m waiting to hear what is her opinion about it and if she plans to take action to forbid this horrible organization in order to protect Israeli soldiers that come to Belgium as well as Jews that have connections to the Israeli government,” said van Rooy.
HRF tracks not only soldiers but politicians and diplomats coming from Israel, said the Vlaams Belang MP.
“Dyab Abu Jaja, the Lebanese founder of the Hind Rajab Foundation, came to Belgium as an illegal immigrant, lying to the authorities about the reasons he came. Then he returned to Lebanon, where he connected with Hezbollah. After some years, he came back to Belgium and started to do what he does now.
Van Rooy said maybe the government can find a legal ground for doing something against him, personally.
“In Belgium, it is more difficult than in other European countries to forbid the activities of an organization because our laws are very tolerant on the founding of organizations. It’s easier to act against the board members of foundations,” he said.
“Nevertheless, according to the information in the report, there is good ground for banning the foundation since it has evident ties to terror organizations like Hezbollah. If the government will see enough evidence of ties with terror organizations, I don’t see any reason why it can not be banned.”
Justice for Flemmish Jews
Van Rooy, who represents Antwerp, is extremely critical of the stance of his country’s justice authorities in the fight against antisemitism, as was demonstrated by the case of the Flemish writer and columnist Herman Brusselmans, who a Belgian court acquitted despite his call to stab every Jew.
“This is yet another example of how people commit antisemitic crimes – verbal, in written form... and often don’t get punished,” said van Rooy. “If they get punished, they get [a] very reduced punishment – public services, small fines, or very short imprisonment terms. It’s a joke. It brings more and more Jews to ask themselves why should they stay in Belgium ‘if the government doesn’t protect us and lets antisemites go free every time.’ They feel unsafe and unhappy. A Muslim called in Arabic for the burning of Jews in a demonstration in Brussels. Nothing has happened to him so far.
Van Rooy said he doesn’t think the justice minister understands how big the problem is, and she doesn’t see the real threat in it, like most politicians in Belgium.
“The justice system in Belgium is blind to antisemitism and anti-Israelism,” said van Rooy. “Especially after the case of Brusselmans. If you can write that you would like to stab every Jew that you see, and the judge considers it to be freedom of speech, it is blindness.
“The worst thing is that if you criticize Islam like I do and you say, for example, ‘stop islamization,’ you get convicted for that. We recently had a case of four persons standing with a sign and such a message. They didn’t call for murder. They got convicted by the same judges who approved a column saying that you can stab Jews. I am not blaming just leftist judges for this. Politicians have created the justice system.”