Belgium 2009
Some
35,000 Jewish citizens live in Belgium out of a total population of 10 million.
The two main centers of Belgian Jewry are Antwerp and Brussels.
Belgian attitudes toward Israel, as well as toward Judaism, are
determined by three internal factors: 1) a Catholic tradition that has been largely
unfavorable to the Jews since the Middle Ages; 2) difficult memories of World War
II, especially in Flanders: anti-Zionism is used there as a way to forget,
forgive or trivialize Flemish collaborationism. 3) the sizeable presence of new
Belgians of Muslim origin: anti-Zionism is a pragmatic way to satisfy this part
of the electorate, especially in Brussels (see below).
Belgium is home to a large number of Muslim communities. Brussels is the western capital with the highest proportion of population from Muslim
cultures or that profess the Muslim religion. Some 20 percent of MPs from the Brussels region have Arab-Muslim roots, mostly in Morocco. All were elected on democratic
lists In addition, a few organizations with undemocratic ideologies are active
on the political scene, including two Islamist parties, Parti
Citoyenneté et Prospérité (PCP) and
Parti des Jeunes Musulmans (PJM, an offshoot of the PCP) (see ASW 2004),
as well as the newer Egalité of Nordine Saïdi, whose establishment
was inspired by the French comedian and convicted antisemite Dieudonné
(see France).
Since
the departure of its leader Dyab Abou Jahjah for Lebanon, the Arab European
League (AEL), an immigrant protest movement promoting the introduction of
Islamic law (Shar`iah) into Europe “by democratic means” (see ASW 2003/4,
2006),
has become more active in the Netherlands than in Belgium.
Belgian Muslims have become increasingly
active in Belgian political life, gaining representation within the democratic
parties, city councils and legislative bodies of the state, and especially
within the French-speaking PS (Socialist Party), to which the Muslim vote has
become crucial. As a result, some two decades ago the traditional pro-Israel
position of the PS in the Brussels region was replaced by a very aggressive
anti-Israel stand. The Swiss theologian and Muslim brother Tariq Ramadan has close
ties to certain leaders of the Socialist Party, especially the Marxist M.
Philippe Moureaux, head of the Brussels Socialist Federation.
Further proof of the
strengthening of ties between mainstream francophone parties and Muslim
immigrants may be found in their joint participation in rallies, such as the
pro-Hamas demonstration held on January 17, 2009 during Israel’s Cast Lead
Operation, Most of these events were infiltrated by groups of Muslim extremists
who equated Israel with the Nazis, IDF soldiers with the SS, and the Star of
David with the swastika.
A significant development among the
pro-Palestinian far left has been the emergence of a strong pro-Hizballah
movement, which views both the PLO and the Palestinian Authority as traitors
and which ties its support for Hizballah/Hamas to that for the so-called Iraqi resistance.
Former French Communist Alain Soral, who became an adviser to
French FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, has won many sympathizers in Belgium. His radical anti-Zionist and differentialist speech attracts a heterogeneous
public, from ultra-right racists and antisemites to ethno-separatist activists
of black and Arab-Muslim causes. Soral is a strong supporter of French comedian
Dieudonné. In 2009, a speaking invitation extended to Soral by the Cercle
des étudiants arabo-musulmans of the Free University of Belgum (ULB) in Brussels, was canceled by the ULB authorities.
In Flanders, the Flemish branch of the international neo-Nazi
Blood & Honour movement organized a private meeting of Nazi songs and
speeches in Arendonk (Campine) in November. The 100+ participants declared they
would fight for a Europe “that belongs to the white race.”
Belgium witnessed a rise in antisemitic incidents in 2009
− 96 compared to 72 in 2008. About half were reports of receipt of
antisemitic literature (in print or via the web).There was one case of extreme
violence (potentially causing loss of life) and eight cases of physical assault
There were also reports of damage and desecration of property, threats and abusive
behavior. In January alone, during Israel’s Cast Lead Operation, 40 incidents
were recorded. The number of antisemitic acts in the first four months of 2009
equaled the total for the whole of 2008 and returned figures to the 2001 level.
Most
of the perpetrators tend to be young people of various backgrounds, from native
Belgium right-wing extremists to immigrants or their descendants from the Maghreb. In the Antwerp region, strong support for the extreme right and incitement of
young Muslims by extremist Arab organizations such as AEL constitute a
potentially explosive cocktail.
While the
cities most affected were Brussels and Antwerp, there were also incidents in Charleroi and Waterloo, where only a handful of Jews live. Most of the violent attacks
were directed against members of the small but visible Orthodox Antwerp Jewish
community. Hassidic Jews walking in the street are often abused by Muslim youths,
with insults such as "Dirty Jew." On March 3, for example, four religious
Jews were attacked in the Belz Hassidic
district of Antwerp by a stick-wielding man shouting “Allah Akbar” (Allah is
great) and
“Yahud Yahud” (Jews, Jews). One of the
victims was hospitalized with multiple fractures. The peak of the violence in
2009 occurred at the start of Israel’s Gaza operation and was directed
especially against Jewish symbols (see ASW 2008).
A veritable “cultural code,”
anti-Zionism serves to express various resentments: failure of immigrants to
integrate, fear of globalization, class warfare and conspiracy theories. While
anti-Zionist propaganda used to legitimize antisemitic positions is
disseminated widely in Belgium and antisemitic views have become more
acceptable in mainstream Belgian society, taboos that have been in place since
World War II are also being broken (see ASW 2008).
An antisemitic skit, associating the Jews with money (diamonds and
prestigious firms such as Rolex and Rolls-Royce), was screened on VRT (Flemish
public TV) on the program "Man bijt hond" (Man beats dog) on January 20
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcHdR80-LeE).
Following complaints from the Jewish community, the Flemish media discussed
whether Jews were too sensitive.
An article published on the website of Vif Express (www.vif.be) accused the Jews of being racists and
murderers. All they cared about was money and profit, which they would kill
for. In a post to another article on the same site, entitled "Bosnia Discriminate
against Jews and Roma,” Roger Sioen wrote: "Is it really by chance that it
is always the same peoples (races) that have problems or is it the ‘others’ that
are bad?"
In Antwerp, the following two antisemitic posters were
discovered in March on the wall of an apartment building in the Kiel in Antwerp:
During the annual carnival of
the French Free University of Brussels (ULB), a traditionally
anti-clerical university, the float of the science-politics department bore a
caricature mocking the three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. While
Catholicism was represented by the Inquisition and Islam by a sexy drawing of a
woman in a veil, a classic antisemitic stereotype was used to symbolize the
Jews’ love of money.
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In March, during a talk about his experiences in the
Holocaust by Henri Kichka, an Auschwitz survivor, to some 150 pupils of the
Athénée Brussels 2 of Laeken (Brussels) and filmed by the school,
Abdelhamid Temsamani, a teacher of contemporary Islamic religion, declared that
the figures quoted by the survivor were "exaggerated." Quoting French
Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, the teacher, a member of the Exécutif
des Musulmans de Belgique, said that historians had reached other conclusions. Despite
the education minister’s announcement that he would set up a public inquiry and
promises by the school to pursue the matter, the matter appears to have been
shelved. Although the teacher denies trivializing the Holocaust, the recordings
exist to prove that he did.
