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The year 1998 in Belgium was relatively quiet in terms of violent anti-Semitic
activity. The extremist and racist Vlaams Blok has become the fourth largest
political party in the Flemish region. In the French region, the two main
extremist parties are the Front national belge and the Front nouveau de
Belgique. In 1998 Vlaams Blok Magazine published several articles
expressing sympathy for revisionist ideas. In recent years the reactivation of
a number of violent, racist and often anti-Semitic mini-groups has
introduced an important new factor into the Belgian extreme right scene.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
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 (15,000) and
Brussels (15,000). The origins of the present Jewish community can be traced
back to Sephardim from the Iberian peninsula who settled in the trading
center of Antwerp. From the nineteenth century onwards, immigrants from
Central and Eastern Europe bolstered the community. Of the nearly 100,000
Jews in pre-war Belgium, over 25,000 were murdered in the Holocaust.
The Comité de Coordination des Organizations Juives de Belgique
(Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium -- CCOJB),
operating out of Brussels, is the community's umbrella organization. The
community in Brussels has a diverse cultural and religious life, including
synagogues of various denominations, schools and an important center for
secular Jewish activities. Antwerp is a thriving European center of ultra-orthodox
Jewish life with about 30 synagogues and shtiebels (family synagogues),
in addition to schools, yeshivot and other religious institutions.
Because of the location of many European Union institutions in Brussels, the
community plays an important role in hosting European Jewish events and
in advocating the interests of communities across Europe.
POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS
The Extreme Right in the Flemish Region
The far right is represented in Flanders and in Brussels by the Vlaams Blok
(Flemish Bloc -- VB) independence party. The VB, which emerged in 1977
as an electoral coalition, adopted, in the mid-1980s, the racist propaganda of
Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National (French FN). Today, the VB is the fourth
largest political party in the Flemish Region (where it won 12.3 percent in
the 1995 regional elections), the largest in Antwerp (with 28 percent in the
1994 municipal elections), and the second largest Flemish party in Brussels
(3 percent in the 1995 regional elections).
While, publicly, the VB has been striving to pass itself off as a respectable
party, it remains quietly faithful to its ideological heritage. Since 1989 the VB
has been the main European ally of the French FN, and in 1998 their political
ties were intensified. Most of the bloc's leaders (Philip Claeys, Filip De Man,
Johan Demol, Filip Dewinter, Karel Dillen, Roeland Raes, Franck Van Hecke,
and others) were involved in the lectures given by the Brussels' mini-group
known as Bruxelles-Identité-Sécurité (BIS), or worked on its propaganda
magazine together with members of the French FN national leadership
before that party split in December 1998.
The BIS was set up in 1994 by the former heads of the Parti des forces
nouvelles (PFN), a French-speaking neo-Nazi and revisionist mini-group,
which was active in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the PFN which handled the
French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson's security and lecture arrangements
in Brussels. Since then, the BIS has unconditionally supported the VB
and called on French-speaking Brussels' residents to vote for it.
Perusal of the Vlaams Blok Magazine, the party's official monthly
publication, reveals its true political character. In 1998, the magazine
published an article favorable to Terre et Peuple (Land and People, an anti-Semitic
Germano-French racist association and co-founder of Bruno Mégret's
FN--Mouvement national). The article bore the signature of Roeland Raes,
vice-president of the VB. Since the 1960s, Raes has been involved in
collaboration between Flemish and foreign neo-fascist movements. Also in
1998, the VB monthly published an interview with Jean-Robert Debbaudt, an
old member of the Wallonia SS who was one of the Belgian contacts of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); he also put out a
revisionist pamphlet on World War II, written by Léon Degrelle, and
subsequently joined the VB. Later in the year Raes paid tribute to the
Vlaamse Militanten Orde (VMO), the largest neo-Nazi and revisionist
paramilitary group of the 1970s. Karel Dillen, the honorary president, wrote
an obituary honoring the French fascist writer Maurice Bardèche, who died
in Paris in August. Dillen had translated into Dutch Bardèche's 1947 work
Nuremberg ou la terre promise, the first revisionist book ever published.
The Extreme Right in the French Community
Five far-right groupings, whose central theme is racism, are represented in
the various parliaments, assemblies or local councils in Belgium: the Front
national belge (FN, established mainly in Brussels, Charleroi and Liège), led
by Daniel Féret; the Front nouveau de Belgique (FNB, active in Brussels,
Mons and Verviers); the Front national--Fédération bruxelloise (FN-FB,
formed by dissidents from the FN and the FNB); the Front de la Nation
belge (FNB-Parti, in Charleroi only); and finally, Réféndum (REF) (set up in
the Liège region, with the support in Brussels of the now defunct neo-Nazi
group Assaut).
It is extremely difficult to draw up a list of elected members sitting for
these groups because their representatives are frequently resigning,
registering as independents or giving up their mandates during their term of
office. Nevertheless, in December 1998 the FN still officially had one
member of the European Parliament, one federal representative and two
regional representatives (compared with eight in 1995); the FNB had one
federal representative and two provincial council members; the FN-FB had
two regional representatives; and the FNB-P and the REF, one regional
representative and one provincial council member each.
The FN and the FNB, which are based primarily in Brussels, advocate
Belgian nationalism (fidelity to the unity of the country and the monarchy).
They both have marginal Dutch-speaking structures: the Front voor de
Natie in the case of the FN, and the Front nieuw Belgie for the FNB. These
two organizations are also designed to target the capital's Flemish voters.
They are characterized by their hostility to the VB, which for the last few
years has been trying to wipe them off the face of the Brussels political map.
In 1998 the French-speaking extreme right was characterized by:
- the presence of a number of rival, mutually hostile parties;
- internal crises within these parties, giving rise to a great deal of
dissidence;
- the lack of financial means;
- the loss of international connections in parallel with the decline in
support for Jean-Marie Le Pen's FN;
- the absence of any serious political, economic or social program;
- an insignificant number of militants.
Neo-Nazist, Anti-Semitic and Revisionist Groups
In recent years the reactivation of a number of violent, racist and often anti-Semitic
mini-groups constitutes an important new factor. They include:
Odal aktiekomitee (Odal Committee). The Odal is a pagan political-religious
symbol used during World War II by the SS, and today by neo-Nazis
worldwide. This committee, which appeared in 1995, runs the Belgian
branch of the Rudolf Hess International Committee. Presenting itself as the
successor of the VMO, the Odal Committee has ties with the European
underground network of the NSDAP-AO (the German National Socialist
party which was re-formed in the 1970s in the US), and the Anti-Antifa
network (the terror squads whose goal is to intimidate the anti-fascists by
any means). In addition, Bert Eriksson, a former leader of VMO, openly
supports the Odal Committee. This group's headquarters are located in the
northern suburbs of Brussels, and it has a number of branches in the Flemish
region. On 12 September 1998, 100 neo-Nazis staged a paramilitary-style
parade in Bruges against the right of foreigners to vote. Eite Homan and Joop
Glimmerveen, the main leaders of Dutch neo-Nazism, were at the march.
The Odal Committee maintains ties with the purist hard line of Mégret's FN--Mouvement
national. In Brussels and in Wallonia it identifies with the
Devenir group (see below), the REF Liège party, and the hooligans of the
Wallons Boys (of the Charleroi football club).
Devenir. This group is the militant successor of the neo-Nazi Assaut group
(1986-97). However, its members include only a minority of former Assaut
militants, most of whom remained in the FNB. Devenir is a direct reference
to the publication of the Charlemagne Division (the French SS). It issues a
quarterly publication by the same name, and opened a website in August
1998. Devenir is in contact with all the neo-Nazi organizations throughout
the world. Most of its public appearances occur at events organized by the
Odal aktiekomitee. Together with the latter and with the REF, Devenir set up
the Comité pour l'expulsion des faux réfugiés politiques (see below), the
Jacques Borsu National Training Center (named after the former leader of the
European Party, an anti-Semitic neo-Nazi mini-group of the 1980s), and the
French-speaking section of the Anti-Zionist Action Committee (see below).
Devenir's leader is Hervé Van Laethem, a former non-commissioned officer
in the Belgian armed forces, who had previously led the European Party and
the French-speaking section of VMO-Bruxelles. Devenir recruits mainly
skinheads and young hooligans (in particular from the Wallons Boys).
Comité pour l'expulsion des faux réfugiés politiques (Committee for the
Expulsion of Fraudulent Political Refugees). Officially, this committee is
made up of "nationalist militants from a variety of backgrounds," but in fact
was set up by the three organizations mentioned above. Its first action took
place in November 1998, when it demonstrated outside an Antwerp church
symbolically occupied by political refugees. Other demonstrations took
place in Brussels, Charleroi, Ghent and Verviers. The FNB took part in some
of its activities. Generally speaking, this committee's demonstrations never
involve more than 50 participants.
Anti-zionistische aktie--Comité d'Action anti-sioniste (AZA). An offspring
of the Dutch National Socialist movement, run by Eite Homan, in
Belgium this committee has a Flemish section (since 1998) and a French-speaking
section (since January 1999). The former is run by the Odal
aktiekomitee, the second by the Devenir group. Officially, the purpose of the
AZA is to participate in the international fight against Zionism. In 1998 it
organized a support campaign for the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. In
France, their political allies, who play a militant role in the FN--Mouvement
national, support the Palestinian Hamas.
Comité "Liberté pour Le Pen." This committee was set up in October 1998
by Hubert Defourny, the REF president, in order to support Jean-Marie Le
Pen after the lifting of his parliamentary immunity in the European
Parliament (see France). The committee's actions are "intended to expose a
world plot against the greatest European defender of homelands." It shares
the same address as the Comité pour l'expulsion des faux réfugiés politiques.
Vrij Historisch Onderzoek (European Foundation for Free Historical
Research -- VHO). Set up in 1985, the VHO promotes the widespread
circulation of various documents denying the genocide committed by the
Nazis. Its leading figure, Siegfried Verbeke, who is regularly investigated by
the legal authorities, is a former national VMO leader who took part in the
creation of the VB. In France the VHO has links with Robert Faurisson, the
neo-Nazi review l'Autre Histoire, and the anti-Semitic weekly Rivarol.
Hertog Jan van Brabant (HJvB). The most radical of the associations of
former Flemish Nazi soldiers, the HJvB aims specifically to perpetuate the
National Socialist ideal. Most of its leaders were involved in the creation of
the VB and the first revisionist organizations in Belgium.
Association des Amis de Drieu-La-Rochelle (ADLR). Founded in 1993 by
Daniel Leskens (a former PFN leader), the goal of the ADLR is to restore to
favor the literary works of the ultra-right French writer Pierre Drieu-La-Rochelle
and to turn to advantage his ideological heritage. In Belgium, this
association enjoys the support of the FN and its cultural circle (les Amis de
la Renaissance européenne, the former GRECE-Belgique), the weekly
(fundamentalist Catholic) Polémique, and the Bulletin célinien (a monthly
devoted to the anti-Semitic writer Céline). Based in the outskirts of Brussels,
the ADLR has two sections abroad, one in Spain and the other in Germany.
In France, this association maintains contact with the most radical of the
extreme right groups.
Supporters of racism and anti-Semitism can also be found within the
Nationalistische studenten vereniging (NSV, a nationalist student society
with ties to the VB), the Vlaamse jongeren Mechelen (VJM, close to the
VB, the BIS, and also the Odal aktiekomitee), Voorpost (the VB's shock
troops), skinhead groups such as Excalibur (in Bruges), Der Stahlhelm-Flandern,
the Viking Jugend-Vlaanderen, the Nationale liga (FNB dissidents),
the Thule-Sodalitas pagan sect, the Groupes de jeunes polémistes
nationalistes (GJPN), the Ligue chrétienne belge (LCB), and the fundamentalist
associations Belgique et Chrétienté (controlled by the editors of
the magazine Polémique) and Pro Vita (with ties to the VB, as well as the
FN and the FNB).
ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES
The year was relatively quiet in terms of violent anti-Semitic activity. An
anonymous threatening letter was received by a senior member of the Jewish
congregation in Brussels, warning of a forthcoming attack on one of the
Jewish institutions in the city.
Propaganda
As noted above, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial is part of the ideology
and the propaganda of several of the groups mentioned above. Altaïr, for
example, a nationalist poetry review, has ties with the FN. The texts which
it publishes are ultra-racist, anti-Semitic and characterized by nostalgia for
the Third Reich. For instance, in 1992, when it also had links with Assaut,
Altaïr published a poem glorifying the swastika. Le Cri du Citoyen, an
extreme right monthly, militates in favor of Daniel Féret's FN. Its editor is an
Italian immigrant who has remained in touch with the Movimento Social--
Fiamma Tricolore (see Italy ). He is a member of the board of the Comité
tricolore des Italiens dans le monde (CTIM), an extreme right international
Italian organization. Le Cri du Citoyen is very close to the anti-Semitic French
publication Rivarol and remains true to Charles Maurras' ideological heritage.
Internet. The worldwide trend showing an increase in the proliferation of
racist, neo-Nazi and revisionist Internet sites is evident, too, in Belgium.
Dutch-and French-language sites include those of the VB (six sites), the NSV
(five sites), the FN (since March 1999), the FNB, Devenir, the Voorpost, the
VJM, Cri du Citoyen and Thule-Sodalitas.
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