belgium 2002-3

 

Two thousand and two was the worst year in terms of antisemitic incidents since World War II in Belgium. A total of 51 incidents were reported compared to 29 in 2001, including 9 cases of physical assault against members of the community. Despite a decrease in the first half of 2003, the number of violent anti-Jewish acts was still considerable compared to the pre-intifada period. Antisemitic incidents appear to correlate clearly with the general anti-Israel atmosphere in Belgium, fomented in particular by unbalanced media and political commentary on the Middle East. The leader of the militantly anti-Zionist Arab European League claimed that Antwerp was the bastion of Zionism.

 

the jewish community

Some 35,000 Jewish citizens live in Belgium out of a total population of 10 million. The two main centres of Belgian Jewry are Antwerp (15,000) and Brussels (15,000). The Comité de Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique (Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium – CCOJB) in Brussels is the community’s umbrella organization. As the seat of the European Union and of NATO, Brussels attracts a large variety of Jewish groups and institutions seeking to advocate European Jewish or Israeli interests.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

Immigrant and Islamist Parties

The Arab European League (AEL), an immigrant protest movement aspiring to introduce Islamic law into Europe “by democratic means,” was created in Antwerp in 2000. Its leader Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese-born Muslim, has aroused controversy due to his opposition to integration and to his demand to recognize Arabic as Belgium's fourth official language, after French, Dutch and German. Formally set up to combat racism and exclusion, the AEL is better known for its anti-Zionist militancy. On 3 April 2002 at a demonstration organized by the AEL, participants shouted antisemitic slogans, such as “Death to the Jews,” and groups of young people descended on the Jewish quarter and smashed many shop windows of diamond merchants. According to Dyab Abou Jahjah, “Antwerp is the bastion of Zionism, and that’s why this city has to become the Mecca of the pro-Palestinian movement.” As a result of these remarks, in June 2002, the Centre d’Egalité des Chances et Lutte contre le Racisme (CECLR) lodged a complaint against him (see below). Nevertheless, the Maoist PTB/PVDA (Parti du Travail de Belgique agreed to share a common list, Resist, with the AEL in the May federal 2003 elections, which won 10,059 votes.

Two Islamist parties ran in the Brussels constituency in the May 2003 elections, NOOR and the PCP (Parti Citoyenneté et Prospérité). Since the PCP obtained over 8,000 votes, it might win a seat in the next regional elections (2004).

 

Political Parties of the Extreme Right

Since its success in the 1991 Belgian legislative elections, the Vlaams Blok (VB) has moderated its tone considerably on controversial topics, such as matters related to the Jews and to the Holocaust (see ASW 2001/2), although it still retains ties with small neo-fascist and antisemitic groups. In the last few years VB local leader Filip Dewinter has even demonstrated solidarity with the Jewish community and with Israel, especially since the creation of the AEL. This tactic was designed to attract part of the Antwerp Jewish vote during the campaign for the May 2003 federal elections. However, the results of the election demonstrated that the vast majority of Antwerp Jewry was not convinced that the VB had undergone a fundamental change and did not vote for it. However, the VB increased its strength in the Flemish electorate (+3.2) and confirmed its status as the leading political party in Antwerp Province, with 25 percent of the total vote (and in the city itself, approximately 33 percent).

Since its establishment in Brussels in 1985, the francophone Front national belge (FNB) has attracted the leaders of political groups and circles known for their endorsement of antisemitism and Holocaust denial, such as Fraternité sacerdotale Saint-Pie X and Cercle Copernic (a cultural group of the neo-Nazi New Right). A number of ‘independent’ publications with antisemitic content, such as the Walloon publication Altaïr, have expressed support for the Front’s political struggle. Although the FNB is less extreme than its Flemish counterpart the VB, “the extreme right is not solely a Flemish business” (Manuel Abramowicz, researcher of the extreme right, in Résistances 7, Summer 1999, pp. 21–2). In the May 2003 elections, the FNB made progress almost everywhere in Wallonia and Brussels, even winning 10 percent of the vote in some areas and gaining a seat in the federal Senate.

 

Extra-Parliamentary Groups of the Extreme Right

Among extra-parliamentary groups of the Belgian far right, antisemitism is less of a taboo than among their parliamentary brethren. Although the political strategy of extra-parliamentary groups is more radical than that of the FNB or the VB, the former maintain regular contact with the parliamentary representatives of right-wing extremism. In French-speaking circles, the Nation movement represents this radical far right. Its principal leader, Hervé Van Laethem (a former non-commissioned officer in the Belgian army), had a leading position in l’Assaut, a small neo-Nazi, antisemitic group which was active from 1988 to 1993. At that time l’Assaut had regular contacts with the FNB and the VB, as well as with all Belgian and foreign neo-Nazi groups. Nation is still associated with extreme right-wing organizations in Europe, such as the outlawed Unité radicale in France and the NPD in Germany (see ASW 2001/2), as well as with the FNB and VB. Significantly, it also has links with radical Islamist elements. In February 2003, Hervé Van Laethem accompanied a group of radical Muslims to Iraq in order that they might serve as a ‘human shield’. This so-called humanitarian and pacifist trip was organized by the extremist Parti des Musulmans de France (PMF), which is reportedly close to the Hizballah. Similarly, the treasurer of Nation and editor of the monthly Nation-info  Antonio Coelho Pinto Ferreira, marched under the banner of Hizballah in one of the major demonstrations against the war in Iraq, held in February 2003. Ironically, in January 2003, the Brussels Chamber of Justice decided to try five Nation leaders, including Hervé Van Laethem and Antonio Coelho Pinto Ferreira, for violating the anti-racism law.

 

antisemitic activity

The second intifada changed the face of antisemitism in Belgium. The assault on the chief rabbi of Brussels, Albert Guigui, by a gang of youths of North African origin in December 2001 (see ASW 2001/2) prompted no public expressions of outrage. The fact that this event and others like it were directed specifically against Jewish, not Israeli, people and property reveals that some Belgians choose to express their support for the Palestinians by attacking Jews.

The Belgian Jewish community suffered the worst waves of antisemitism in December 2001 and in April/May 2002. Undoubtedly, 2002 was the worst year since World War II. A total of 51 antisemitic incidents were reported by the BESC (Bureau Exécutif de Surveillance Communautaire), in 2002 compared to 29 in 2001. There were 9 cases of physical assault against members of the community compared to 7 in 2001. Incidents of damage and desecration to property increased to 15 compared to 2 in 2001. The number of mail and phone threats increased from 7 in 2001 to 16. Reports of receipt of antisemitic literature rose from 3 to 7. The only decline was in abusive behavior, from 9 in 2001 to 4 in 2002.

One of the most serious incidents in 2002 was the attack on three young Jews near a synagogue in Antwerp by a group of 30 Arab youths in April. One of the Jews was severely injured. A month later two Hassidim were set upon by an Arab youth gang while they were on their way to the Belz synagogue in Antwerp. The attackers shouted “Dirty Jew!” and “Praise to Hitler!” There were Molotov cocktail attacks on several synagogues in late March, April and May, and the synagogue in Charleroi was machine gunned on the night of 20–21 April (Hitler’s birthday). On 15 April the car of a Jewish family in Molenbeek was vandalized and swastikas were painted on the doors, and on 18 April a Jewish bookstore and a kosher restaurant in Brussels were set alight.

Despite a decrease in the first half of 2003, the number of violent anti-Jewish acts was still considerable compared to the pre-intifada period, particularly in their seriousness. For example, an attempt to blow up a synagogue in Charleroi was foiled at the last minute, saving potentially tens of victims, just as a man was igniting gasoline he had poured near a vehicle loaded with gas canisters. In March 2003 eight students from the Maimonides School were attacked and insulted by young North Africans in a metro station. A total of 17 antisemitic incidents was reported from January to July 2003: 6 physical assaults; 4 incidents of damage and desecration of property, 4 threats and 2 cases of abusive behavior.

These incidents appear to correlate clearly with the general anti-Israel atmosphere in Belgium, fomented in particular by unbalanced media and political commentary on the Middle East conflict. For example, during a discussion in the main political forum of the francophone state channel (RTBF) on the Universal Competence Law (which empowered Belgian courts to judge anyone accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, regardless of the suspect's country of origin or the place where the crime took place), analogies were made between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Demonization of Israel of this kind in both the media and the political world only serves to encourage the perpetration of antisemitic violence.

Much Belgian antisemitism is based on traditional anti-Judaism that exists across the national spectrum: Flemish and francophone, Catholic and traditional left, and even among liberals. Some nationalist circles in Flanders exploit the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to express their antisemitism in order to relieve the longstanding burden of guilt of the Shoah. The judeophobic anti-Zionism of the extreme left, representing anti-capitalism, unconsciously revives the 19th century classic age of revolutionary or social antisemitism. Supported by the main capitalist power the US, Israel is perceived as one of the evils of the world, and the Arabs are portrayed as the main victims of capitalism. Therefore, if some Arabs metamorphosed into fanatics, it is due solely to their natural resentment against the West and, particularly against Israel. This approach may be found in the publications of almost all leftist ideological trends and groups, such as the neo-Christian humanitarian movements, a large proportion of neo-anti-imperialists and other anti-globalization groups, as well as among the traditional left. It explains the very strong link between some radical leftist movements such as the Marxist-Leninist PTB/PVDA (Parti du Travail de Belgique) and radical Muslim groups such as the Antwerp-based AEL. For example, the PTB journal Solidaire published an interview with AEL leader Dyab Aou Jahjah (25 Nov. 2002), who defended the Hizballah as a democratic Muslim party represented in the Lebanese parliament, and whose army was resisting the “Israeli fascist occupation.” For the traditional left, though, opposition to Israel is more tactical than ideological. For instance, the francophone Socialist Party (PS) chose to co-opt to the Senate the president of the Belgo-Palestinian association – a fanatical anti-Zionist and former head of Oxfam Belgium, known for its brutal opposition to Israel – in order to seduce the large Muslim community of Brussels. It should be noted that six out of nine municipal councilors (66 percent) of the Socialist faction of the Brussels council are of Muslim origin. Another reflection of successful North African integration in Brussels is the fact that over 10 percent of members of the Region of Brussels council (which includes the Brussels council) are of North African origin. This demographic trend explains in part the attitude of the francophone Liberal Party and especially of its leader Louis Michel, and the fact that the Belgian minister of foreign affairs chose to do nothing to calm down the anti-Sharon hysteria. On the contrary, as long as the Universal Competence Law concerned only Sharon and some minor African dictators, it did not trouble the liberals, either francophone or Flemish. But the moment a lawsuit was filed against President George Bush senior and Colin Powell, the law was instantly revised. Thus, like the Jew of old, Israel was the scapegoat of Belgium’s so-called new ‘ethical’ foreign policy. Moreover, in countries such as Belgium, Israel or Zionism can play a significant role by serving to expiate once and for all Europe’s crimes and its colonial and imperialistic past.

attitudes to the holocaust and the nazi era

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt issued, on 6 October 2002, Belgium’s first official apology for the complicity of government representatives in the deportation of about half of Belgium’s 60,000 Jews. He also honored those who did not collaborate with the Nazis and refused to force Jewish residents to wear yellow stars on their clothes. The apology, like that issued in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland, followed the report of a committee of historians on collaboration with the Nazis.

            In April 2003 the Belgian parliament passed a law allowing historians access to archives in order to investigate the complicity of Belgian officials with the Nazis in the extermination of the Jews. The archives will be opened in January 2004. This will enable investigation of claims that local authorities and police collaborated with the Nazis in preparing lists and rounding up Jews for deportation and in enforcing the wearing of the yellow star. The subject became taboo after the war when former collaborators became important politicians.

 

responses to antisemitism and racism

On 28 November 2002 Belgium police arrested Dyab Abou Jahja, leader of the AEL. He was charged with promoting the riots of the two previous days, during which 160 North African immigrant youths were arrested. The riots were triggered by the murder of a 27-year-old teacher from Morocco by a local pensioner. The AEL is suing the mayor, who accused them of fomenting the riots. The VB and the Belgian prime minister called for banning the AEL.

            King Albert II of Belgium spoke out against increasing racism in Belgium and in Europe, in general, in July 2002. He called for tolerance and warned that the Middle East conflict should not be reflected in Belgian life.

            European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Anna Diamantopoulou launched the first European round table in the struggle against antisemitism and islamophobia. The first meeting focused on antisemitism, seeking responses in politics, law, education, the media and religious institutions. The second, held in February 2003, focused on islamophobia, and the third, held in March 2003, discussed intercultural exchange.