"Youth" shouted "Fuck Israel" and "Stinking Jew" at non-Jew in Brussels

Background: HERE

During a session at the Brussels regional parliament on March 8, MP Alain Destexhe called for action following the use of an anti-Semitic cartoon by a cultural and educational association affiliated to the Socialist party on a invitation to a conference about Zionism to be held in Brussels.  His criticism drew furious reactions from other Socialist MPs.

MP Jacques Brotchi, who is a retired eminent professor of neurosurgery, wrote on his Facebook account that the outburst of hatred was a deeply traumatizing experience for him. He had to leave because he couldn't bear the shouting and the abuse from socialist MPs against Mr Destexhe who had had the courage to tell the truth. "In a democratic society, where the rule of law prevails, such behaviour is unacceptable and intolerable. I was deeply shocked by what I experienced this afternoon at the Brussels Parliament", he wrote.

Mr Destexhe reported on his blog that a member of staff at the Parliament, who is not Jewish (Mr Destexhe is not Jewish either), had told him that he was walking in Brussels recently. It was a rainy day and he was wearing a large overcoat and a hat. A group of "youth" ("youth" means in polite language young Arab men) shouted at him "Fuck Israel" and "stinking Jew"...  Here in French.

In 2011, Mr Brotchi resigned from Free Brussels University Board to protest againt repeated anti-Semitic incidents.

Head of European Humanist Association calls Shimon Peres a 'war criminal', a liar and a hypocrite

Belgian Israel-basher Pierre Galand, a much respected (and this is surreal, also highly regarded by Belgian francophone Jewish leaders) and highly influencial socialist politician and 'humanist', has called for the boycott of Shimon Peres and accused him of being a "war criminal" who behind the façade of a "man of peace" is the representative of a "criminal State".  On a previous occasion Mr Galand said that Israel was a rogue State.  He also suggested that Yithzak Rabin was a war criminal.  

On the occasion of Peres' visit to Belgium, one of the anti-Israel associations he chairs (one of them is BDS) released a statement:  "His dovish image serves to obscure the real face of this Israeli politician.  Since 2007 as President of the State of Israel, he has used his positive image to help tone down the international negative reactions to the policies of the Israeli governments who lean more and more to the right".

Pierre Galand also summoned "criminal" Shimon Peres to the last session of the Belgian kangaroo court he created (Russell Tribunal on Palestine) to be held next week in Brussels and to free Marwan Barghouti, hinting at Israel-apartheid. More on Mr Peres visit to Belgium: Belgian Jewish leaders invite head of anti-Israel university to debate with Shimon Peres.

In French: Un ancien sénateur belge traite Shimon Peres de "criminel de guerre"

Belgian Jewish leaders invite head of anti-Israel university to debate with Shimon Peres

Belgian Jewish leaders invited the head of the Free University of Brussels to a debate which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be a disastrous "blame-Shimon-Peres-and-Israel-game". The audience was shocked by the violence of the charge.  President Peres who was scheduled to answer questions, but left immediately after answering Mr Vivier's accusations. There are people in Belgium who hold positive views on Israel but they are ignored, why do Belgian Jewish leaders turn to Israel-bashers? Yet again, the debate was not about Israel. The debate was about the Israel-Arab conflict and the badness of Israel.  The Free University of Brussels is a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment and honestly the Rector who wascriticised for accepting the invitation to meet Peres had to be shown to be more than critical of Israel.  The Russell Tribunal on Palestine was created by Pierre Galand and others from the ULB who called Shimon Peres a "war criminal" ("behind his facade of a man of peace he is a war criminal" and the "representative of a criminal State"). M. Peres praised the United States and President Obama. Well done Mr. Peres and sorry for the affront.

Yossi Lempkowicz @ EJP:

Speaking on Tuesday at an event hosted by the umbrella representative groups of the Belgian Jewish community, the president Shimon Peres responded to "concerns" about the Israeli government’s policy expressed by the rector of the Brussels Free University (ULB), Didier Viviers, who was invited to debate with the Israeli leader in presence of ambassadors, academics, politicians and members of the Jewish community.

 Viviers’s presence at the event had been sharply criticized by several fellow professors as well as by pro-Palestinian and extreme left pro-boycott activists who staged a demonstration in front of the Palais des Academies where the event took place. "I accepted the invitation to discuss with the president and to ask him a few questions as part of our freedom of speech," he said. "My university, Mister President, is concerned about violations of international law. The colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal and violates the Geneva Convention," the rector told Peres. He also questioned the president's personal position on the issue and what he called the "double discourse." "While you are in favor of negotiations with the Palestinians on the issue, colonisation, which is the main obstacle, continues, even in East Jerusalem, a policy which is condemned by the Europeans," he said, before bluntly asking : "Mr President dont’you feel that you are used by Netanyahu and Lieberman."

In his lenghty response, Peres recalled that the Arabs rejected the partition plan of Palestine in 1947 into a Jewish and an Arab state. "The Arabs rejected it while we accepted." "Israel was attacked seven times, went through seven wars not only with the Palestinians but also with Arab countries." "We made peace with Egypt and Jordan and we gave back all land and water, and though people still criticze us.," he said. Recalling the time when he had to replace Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after he was assassinated in 1995, Peres stressed that Palestinian terror followed began with several bloody bus bombings. "But we later started a peace process with the Palestinians, we helped buit their economy, their security. We agreed to give back the Gaza Israeli settlements completely. Instead of creating a state, Hamas, a terror group, took control of Gaza." " We have to complete our negotiations with the Palestinians but Hamas, which controls Gaza, doesn’t want to negotiate while the PLO under President Abbas in the West Bank doesn’t have control over the whole situation."  [...]

Belgium: an antisemitic cartoon to illustrate a conference on Zionism

An anti-Semitic and holocaust-denying cartoon featured on posters for a conference in Brussels - in an area, Molenbeek, densely populated by Muslims - organised by the local section of the Socialist party.  The conference was cancelled.  The theme was "Let's talk calmly about Zionism"...  You couldn't make it up, could you?

David Meyer, an Israel-bashing rabbi testified in Congress on European anti-Semitism

Times of Israel: "Twelve experts of varying religions and homelands urged the US Congress to speak out against hate speech and anti-Semitism throughout the world, notably Europe. The human rights subcommittee of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee held a two-hour hearing on Wednesday in which experts testified that anti-Semitism is resurgent, particularly in Europe."

It is indeed odd that David Meyer, a French rabbi who lives in Belgium and who is a relentless and harsh critic of Israel who advocates a bi-national State was invited as an "expert" on anti-Semitism to the United States Congress.  Rabbi Meyer is more known for his criticism of Israel on the European media than for his fight against anti-Semitism.  Pity that in his exposé before the Committee he didn't elaborate on his unbelievable views on Israel.

In 2010, he gave an interview titled "It is more than time for Israel to wake up" to the French communist paper L'Humanité. This is how he was introduced: "Rabbi David Meyer holds dual French and Israeli citizenship. He is the author of several books and now lives in Belgium. He has been a committed militant for years and has unrelentlessly denounced the colonization [settlements] which he considers a fault on the part of the Israeli leadership. He has also been a critic of the blockade imposed by Tel Aviv [the capital of Israel!] on the Gaza Strip. He strongly condemns the attack against the peace flotilla off the strip of Palestinian land and calls on the Israeli leadership to "open their eyes" and to come out of their "messianic bubble".

"What is your reaction to last week's tragic events [Turkish flotilla]?
David Meyer: "I find them appalling. And I think that in such circumstances the role of religion is to show to those in one's own camp [the Jews] that they are no longer able to see [i.e. that they are blind]. There in the Jewish world and in Israel an inability to see what it means to put hundreds of thousands of people in prison for years just because they voted for Hamas. This is what Israel is doing in the Gaza strip. It is a sign of absolute failure of Israel vis-à-vis the Palestinian issue. This is very serious. Israeli leaders have no excuses, no mitigating circumstances. You do not kill civilians, especially when you are responsible for the situation created by the blockade. If the Jewish world does not wake up, nothing Jewish will be left in the State of Israel and it will of no interest. Jewish tradition teaches us that man must be able to surpass himself and see the human side even in his enemy and in the friend of his enemy. If the Jews of Israel are no longer capable of this, Israel will not survive. This is my fight and I am determined to continue."

When asked about a European movement JCALL inspired by J Street, Meyer boasts that over the previous decade he has gone much further and said things much harsher about Israel than those contained in the "call" and that he "even said before the last election that one has to become a dissendent on the face of what the State of Israel is becoming. We must call a spade a spade and say that there are moral faults when creating an injustice that is not necessary for one's survival. The colonization [settlements] is not necessary. I signed the petition to express that while showing my commitment to Israel". He complains that religion in Israel has "infected the secular world". And how will the future of Israel unfold? " I have always thought that long-term solution will be a federal and bi-national State, but it should go through a temporary phase of two States, Israel and Palestine. My model is Belgium, where we live together even if we do not like one other. Obviously, what is happening in Belgium is worrying, because if the federal model no longer works here, there is little change it will succeed there." He praises Jimmy Carter and criticises Barack Obama: "An outside power - the United States have the capacity - must force Israel out of its isolation and say, as Carter did in his time: "Enough is enough". I was hoping that Obama would do it, and I do not understand his procrastination."

Shimon Peres summoned to Belgian kangaroo court and to free Marwan Barghouti

"We would like to formally invite you to take part in this historic event. We would also like to seize this opportunity of this letter to ask you, in your position as Nobel Prize winner, President of the State of Israel and someone that has always advocated a just and durable peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, to free Marwan Barghouti. This would enable him to be in Brussels with us on these two days. Such a gesture from you would certainly be as important as the one F.W de Klerk did with Nelson Mandela in 1991 [this is particularly rich: the kangaroo count has found Israel guilty of the crime of apartheid... and Pierre Galand, who wrote the letter, says that Israel is a "rogue State" - The Russell Tribunal on Palestine dishonours victims of apartheid]. It would also mark a new beginning for Israeli-Palestinian relationships that I am sure will be a revolution in itself." (Pierre Galand)

From Pierre GALAND, General Coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (Feb. 20, 2013)

Shimon Peres
President State of Israel

Dear Mr President,

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is a people’s initiative whose proceedings were launched in 2009 in response to a call from Ken Coates, Chairman of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Nurit Peled, Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2001, and Leila Shahid [she is the great grand niece of Hitler's friend Hadj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, and Yassir Arafat's cousin], Ambassador of Palestine to the European Union (EU). The RToP follows on the footsteps of the people’s tribunals established by the philosopher Bertrand Russell on Vietnam (1966-1967) and the Lelio Basso International Foundation for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples of Latin America (1974-1976).

[Interestingly, Bertrand Russell had a poor opinion of Islam: "Bolshevism combines the characteristics of the French Revolution with those of the rise of Islam; and the result is something radically new, which can only be understood by a patient and passionate effort of imagination. [...] Marx has taught that Communism is fatally predestined to come about; this fits in with the Oriental traits in the Russian character, and produces a state of mind not unlike that of the early successors of Mahomet. Opposition is crushed without mercy, and without shrinking from the methods of the Tsarist police, many of whom are still employed at their old work. Since all evils are due to private property, the evils of the Bolshevik régime while it has to fight private property will automatically cease as soon as it has succeeded."]

Noting the failure of third parties to push Israel to respect fundamental international legal norms and to comply with their international obligations, the RToP seeks to contribute to a just resolution of the conflict by mobilizing public opinion, enhancing the role of civil society and providing it with the legal tools it requires to take action.

On March 17, the RToP will convene for its closing session in Brussels. At this event, the members of the Jury will review the findings of the previous four international sessions of the RToP, which highlighted the complicity of third parties (the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and multinational corporations) in breaches of international law by Israel in Occupied Palestine.

Belgium: making fun of Jews and the Holocaust

Yet again in Belgium fun is made of the Jews and the Holocaust.

2009: Crooked noses and yellow stars at the Aalst carnival (Belgium): "The climax of the indignities to which Jews still living in Germany were forced to submit was the yellow star, the wearing of which became compulsory on 19 September 1941. Nowhere was the Jew to feel safe: she or he was to be marked out, part of the crowd but already exiled from it. For several days Klemperer was unable to sum up the courage to leave the Jews’ House and go out into the street with the yellow star displayed on his chest." (Martin Chalmers, introduction to I Shall Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1933-41, Weinfeld & Nicolson, 1998)

2013: More fun: ADL Appalled at Holocaust Mockery During Belgium’s Aalst Carnaval; Praises UNESCO for Quick Condemnation: "The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is outraged and appalled that a group of participants in the UNESCO-affiliated Aalst Carnaval dressed as Nazi SS officers and paraded through the streets of Aalst, Belgium on a rail car reminiscent of those used to deport Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust. Photos in the Belgian media showed the men dressed in full Nazi regalia with a Hasidic Jewish boy character on a railcar, decorated with posters depicting pails labeled, “Zyklon,” the chemical used in the Nazi gas chambers."  2013 marks the 80th anniversary of Hitler's rise to power.

Holocaust Mockery at Aalst Carnaval, Belgium

Belgium Media RTL TVI

Belgian politician calls political analyst "Zionist scum"

Popular and well-respected Belgian French-speaking politician Jamal Ikazban has tweeted that political analysist Claude Moniquet is a "Zionist scum". Mr Ikazban misrepresented Mr Moniquet's words by quoting Claude Moniquet as having said on a radio programme that Egypt is an open air garbage bin.



During the 2010 local elections Jamal Ikazban wore a Palestinian flag pin on his lapel...

Copenhagen, headmistress recommeds Jewish kids go to school with fewer Muslims

Norway, Israel and the Jews:

Aftenposten 2013/01/29, by Sofie Gran

Summary: On anti-Semitism in Denmark, reaching unacceptable levels in schools, making headmasters recommend Jewish students move to schools with fewer Muslims.

The image chosen to highlight this article depicts Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen of the Danish “Enhedslisten” party, a party on the extreme left, having made numerous anti-Israeli statements, talking to students.

In Brussels for a Jewish school in downtown Brussels, it’s relocate or shut down.  The school looks like a bunker.  Surely a nice environment for children.

Israel-basher Anna Baltzer also invited to Brussels

Exposing the Palestinians' Anna Baltzer, Will Oxford Endorse a Fraud?, by Lee Kaplan


Anna Baltzer has also been invited to give a conference on BDS and apartheid Israel in Brussels on 4 February by an fully-dedicate anti-Israël Belgian NGO l'Association Belgo-Palestinienne Wallonie-Bruxelles and Progressive Belgian Jews Juifs (UPJB).  Belgium is always at the forefront of anti-Israel propaganda and campaigning.

Belgian artist Ben Heine has drawn this portrait of "Pietanna", i.e. Anna Baltzer. It draws on the most vicious Christian anti-Jewish martyrology - Christ is depicted as a Palestinian killed by Israelis.

Source: Ben Heine's blog

Morsi's Egypt will not crawl at the feet of America and Israel

Bichara Khader, a Palestinian-Belgian professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, explained in an interview on the 'Egypt Spring':

"Morsi's Egypt will not crawl at the feet of America and Israel".

Conveniently he was not asked about President Morsi's antisemitic pronouncements.  He will not crawl but will accept American taxpayers's money...

Mr Khader, who wrote in 1975 for the since defunct Eurabia Magazine, is a well known Israel-basher. In 2009 he wrote "Israël perpetrates the most abject form of terrorism by using phosphorus bombs". Needless to say he is much appreciated in Belgium.

In French HERE.

Belgian Minister slams ‘fundamentalist’ Orthodox Israeli colleague for refusing to shake hands

Laurette Onkelinx and her party (Socialist) are known to be hostile to Israël. Former ambassador to Belgium Jehudi Kinar: "Another powerful figure in the party is Laurette Onkelinx, then-Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister. We met a number of times. She promised me she would speak with Di Rupo, as she could not believe that my letter had not been answered. Onkelinx assumed there had been a technical glitch. When we did not receive an answer from Di Rupo, I sent her a letter. She did not acknowledge it. In the new government she will be Minister for Social Affairs and Health, and again Deputy Prime Minister." Her husband, lawyer Marc Uyttendaele, wrote a nasty anti-Israel book in 2006... (See: Belgium's New Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and the Jews)

BRUSSELS (EJP)--- Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Laurette Onkelinx accused an Israeli Orthodox Minister of ‘fundamentalism’ for choosing not to shake hands with her. The two health ministers met at the annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, when Onkelinx claims her Orthodox Israeli counterpart refused to shake her hand.

Yakov Litzman is Israel's Deputy Health Minister and a leader of the haredi United Torah Judaism party and, as such, does not touch members of the opposite sex under any circumstances. Onkelinx reacted to the event by posting news of it on her official Facebook page, under the heading “My hands are clean!”.

In the text that followed, she described how it was her second such “profoundly troubling” experience, the first being when she met an Iranian official: “This kind of fundamentalist attitude, connected to a certain perception of religion and women, profoundly troubles me”, the statement went on to say. The Jewish community has condemned the Belgian minister’s response, with editor of Jewish publication Joods Actueel claiming it “demonstrates her ignorance”: “Mr Litzman’s refusal to shake Ms. Onkelinx’s hand had nothing to do with any view on women or impurity...It’s the custom. A more seasoned politician would have been aware of this sensibility in advance”, said editor-in-chief Michael Freilich. Numerous bloggers also posted about the "gaffe," the majority concluding “ignorance may not kill, but it’s not a reason to take umbrage with a stranger”. [Many comments are viciously anti-Jewish and she is not on record for having complained about the Iranian official.  Furthermore, she knows full well that there are many Muslims in Brussels who do not shake hands with opposite sex, but again she does not complain about them. What's more, Pinchas Kornfeld, an orthodox Jew who lives in Antwerp claims he has met Mrs Onkelinx several times, didn't shake hands with her, and she never complained either.  Her sudden anger seems to be politically motivated - her outburst is set to please the Muslim (mainly Arab) population in Brussels put at a formidable 30% and set to grow.] 

'1938-style Jew hatred still alive in Belgium'

There are countless gatherings like these in Europe every year - and every body vows to combat anti-Semitism.  But nothing changes.  Last year, this year, next year the same ritual, the same solemn promises again and again.  One only has to look at how Europe treats the Roma population to understand that nothing will be done.

Pro-Hamas rally in Brussels (11 Jan. 2009)

'1938-style Jew hatred still alive in Belgium' By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT 29/01/2012 - Edelstein tells European dignitaries that anti-Semitism rife in Europe.

The sort of anti-Semitic attacks that took place in Europe in 1938 are occurring here today, Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein told European dignitaries and Jewish leaders on Thursday night.

“A brick hurled at a Jewish shop. A Molotov cocktail at a rabbi’s house. A Jewish girl attacked at school. These aren’t memories of Europe in 1938, but headlines in 2011,” Edelstein said in a speech at a ceremony in Belgium. Edelstein represented Israel at an event celebrating Belgium’s chairmanship of the intergovernmental Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education. Belgium will replace the Netherlands as the task force’s leader in March. Under Belgium’s chairmanship, the task force is to be transformed and renamed the International Holocaust Remembrance Organization. Some 300 people attended the ceremony in Mechelen where Edelstein spoke last week. “My concern is the escapism that occurs in these ceremonies,” Edelstein told The Jerusalem Post after his speech. “Conclusions from current incidents in Belgium, Holland and elsewhere must be drawn: Anti-Semites replace ‘Jew’ with ‘Zionist’ or ‘Israeli.’ They tell any blood libel and call it political debate.” 

Belgian UN hunger expert investigates Canada

"De Schutter does not want you to know that Havana’s Communist government created his post, nor that the co-sponsors included China, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe. [...] "De Schutter has repeatedly made one-sided attacks on Israel lacking any nexus to his mandate. Last July, he issued a pre-emptive attack against his own boss, in a press release titled “UN Special Rapporteur opposes Ban Ki-Moon’s conclusions on flotilla.” De Schutter was outraged that a panel appointed by the UN chief found that Israel’s blockade of Gaza, to stop Hamas importing Iranian missiles, was actually legal — contradicting what De Schutter’s human rights council had said the year before."

Source: Hillel Neuer: As much of the world starves, a UN hunger expert investigates Canada, National Post (May 4, 2012)

“There is no food and no clean water, nothing,” Mahmoud, a 12-year-old boy from Homs, Syria, told Reuters Thursday. “There is no shop open and we only have one meal a day. How can we live like that and survive?”  According to the World Food Program, half a million people don’t have enough to eat in Syria. Fears are growing that the regime is using hunger as a weapon.  This is the kind of emergency which should attract the attention of the UN Human Rights Council’s hunger monitor, who has the ability to spotlight situations and place them on the world agenda. Yet Olivier de Schutter of Belgium, the “Special Rapporteur on the right to food,” is not going to Syria.  [He is a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain.  In 2006 he wrote this report for a Belgian human rights NGO: Failing the Palestinian State : The human rights impact of the economic strangulation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory ]  Instead, the UN’s food monitor is coming to investigate Canada.

That’s right. Despite dire food emergencies around the globe, De Schutter will be devoting the scarce time and resources of the international community on an 11-day tour of Canada—a country that ranks at the bottom of global hunger concerns.

A key co-ordinator and promoter of De Schutter’s mission is Food Secure Canada, a lobby group whose website accuses the Harper government of “failing Canadians … and [failing to] fulfill the right to food for all.” The group calls instead for a “People’s Food Policy.”

I asked De Schutter if his time wouldn’t better be spent on calling attention to countries that actually have starving people.  “Globally, 1.3 billion people are overweight or obese,” he responded via his spokesperson, “and this causes a range of diseases such as certain types of cancers, cardio-vascular diseases or (especially) type-2 diabetes that are a huge burden.”  In other words, the hunger expert is not even that interested in hunger, but the opposite. Sure, we should all eat less fries, but do Canadians need a costly UN inquiry to tell us that?

Belgian newspaper accused of deligitimizing Israel by not mentioning the country on Mideast map

Le Soir is notoriously and obsessively hostile to Israel, promoting boycotts etc.  The newspaper featured the map for two successive days (26 and 27 December) without realising after the first day that something was amiss.  A clear indication of the quality its experts and its readership's apathy...  Jean-Philippe D., who is not Jewish, wrote to Le Soir: "One thing still confounds me. The words "Palestinian Authority" target the West Bank [Cisjordanie in French] territories (the Israelis say "Judea and Samaria" and English-speakers "the West Bank") and Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is not a territory but a government! Strange ... Another mistake is to make a connection between the P.A and Gaza. The real Authority in Gaza is obviously the Hamas!".  Spot on!

Reminder: Maroun Labaki of Le Soir wrote in 2010 that EU Commissioner De Gucht had broken taboos re the Jewish Lobby and Jewish irrationality.  This also gives an idea of where the paper's sympathies lie: Brussels: Jihad by vuvuzela!

BRUSSELS (EJP) ---Being accused by the Jewish community in Belgium of "deligitimizing Israel” by failing to mention this country’s name on a Middle East map illustrating articles on the Arab Spring, Belgian daily Le Soir speaks of an "indisputable error" but said it was "outraged and insulted" by the accusation.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the CCOJB, the umbrella body representing Jewish organizations in Belgium, regretted "that once again newspaper Le Soir delights in the delegitimization of the State of Israel by publishing, during two consecutive days, a map of the Middle East, which simply ignores the existence of the State of Israel."

"In addition, the words ‘Palestinian Authority’ were included in the place of Israel, which is also untrue and denies the duality existing between Gaza and the West Bank," the statement added.  "The CCOJB condemns this double breach of truth and rigorous information."

Reacting to the accusation, the paper's chief editor Didier Hamman admitted that "this is undoubtedly a mistake, I plead guilty and apologize." But he also said he was "shocked and insulted" by the accusation from CCOJB that the newspaper did it intentionally.

Belgian designers to erect flashy Holocaust-themed fence featuring a crematoria

"The annihilation of six million Jews and millions of others must not become a tool to merely titillate and outrage in the name of art.”

Source: JPost Belgians Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel plan to erect Holocaust-themed fence in Amsterdam.

AMSTERDAM – Two famous designers from Antwerp have announced plans to erect a flashy, Holocaust-themed fence here featuring a crematoria and replicas from the Buchenwald concentration camp. Designers Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel revealed the project after a Dutch museum rejected their “inappropriate” works on Auschwitz.

The fence, which Smeets, 40, and Tynagel, 34, designed, had been commissioned by a Dutch art collector for the collector’s estate, Smeets said during a performance on a prime time Dutch television show on December 7. He said he would not reveal the collector’s identify. The fence design includes a translation of the German writing on the gates of Buchenwald – Jedem das Seine (“to each his own”).

Smeets and Tynagel – described in a New York Times profile piece as “the poster boy and girl of the new expressionism in design” – designed for the same collector a dining set with a mass-grave motif. They also sent the Groninger Museum prints of tablecloths with an Auschwitz-Birkenau theme to be displayed along with other works by Smeets and Tynagel in the museum’s reception room.  However, the museum – among Holland’s finest contemporary art museums – refused to show the tablecloths, which display an overview of the compound and a heap of reading glasses in the middle.  Willemien Bouwer, a spokeswoman for the museum, said the hall is sometimes used to host parties and dinners.

Belgian government anti-racist outfit accused of anti-semitism

A police commissioner has filed a complaint about antisemitic statements at a seminar on multiculturalism (Source: Joods Actueel - Centrum Gelijke Kansen nu Zelf aangeklaagd wegens racisme)

It is with immense incredulity that senior police officers heard unacceptable racist, anti-semitic and Holocaust denial statements at a course run by the Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism (CECLR). It is unfortunate that CECLR staff, an organisation which reports to the Prime Minister and is meant to combat racism (their record on anti-semitism is very poor) believe in vicious anti-Jewish stereotypes and are prepared to make them known in public to people who in no way share their views - the vast majority of the Belgian population firmly rejects such views. The gay community was also the target of unflattering judgments. But it was against the Jews that a 50-year-old Turkish-born female anti-racist "expert" launched a tirade:

"These people [the Jews] can get away with anything because they have money and financial power, but they also exploit our guilt [meaning the Holocaust]."

Commissioner David Vroome (43) [photo] of the Federal Police of Brussels and twenty senior colleagues attended a course hosted at the Geruzet centre in Brussels. The course on multiculturalism was given by two instructors from the CECLR.

"Never in my life have I heard such remarks about the Jewish community", said Vroom to Joods Actueel. "And the fact that they came from a CECLR employee makes matters even worse."

Police commissioner Vroom, who is a lawyer by training and worked as a lawyer in Antwerp and Brussels, recounts the scene:

"At one point we were discussing the ethnic and cultural groups in our society. It was indicated that the Chinese, the Japanese and the Eurocrats [EU officials] who live in Brussels go to their own shops and restaurants and may also have different sets of rules and behavior. This led us to the Jewish community and then the speaker made shocking statements. My attention was caught when she mentioned the "financial power" that prompts Jews to believe that they can get away with anything". But when I heard her remark that "Jews always hark back to the past" - a clear reference to the Holocaust - I was shocked. Especially since she said "that Belgium has nothing to do with it." [1].

"It caught the attention of the delegates in the room," testified another police commissioner who attended the course and who wants to remain anonymous. "The silence that followed was such that you could hear your neighbours breathing and all looked in disbelief. The other CECLR female lecturer did not react and the course continued as if nothing had happened."

MORE TO FOLLOW

The record of CECLR as regards anti-Semitism is far from satisfactory. See: Jozef De Witte, an anti Israel militant, appointed director of the Center for Equal Opportunity in 2004)

[1] It is estimated that 67,000 Jews were living in Belgium before the war. 25,000 Jews were deported, including 5,093 children of which 145 were under two years old. Of the 25,000 deported, 1,205 survived: "One deported Jew out of five was under 16. There are even children under 2. The youngest, who left in the twentieth convoy, and was not forty days old. " (historian Maxime Steinberg). "Under conditions generally very sordid men, women, children and the elderly were parked in camps that served as an antechamber to the Nazi death camps: Drancy in France, the Dossin barracks in Mechelen [Malines], Belgium [situated close the Archdiocese ...], Westerbork in the Netherlands or Italy Fossoli are among the most famous." After the war, 25,000 Jews were living in Belgium and nowadays there are between 35,000 and 40,000. Several studies have shown Belgian authorities' involvement in in the Holocaust. There are more than 1,500 Righteous in Belgium.  See HERE.

Cross-posted in French (Belgique: le Centre pour l'Egalité des chances est accusé de racisme)

Belgium's New Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and the Jews

Please note that former Belgian PM Yves Leterme (Flemish) never expressed such disdain.  On the contrary.  See his comments on the right-hand column of this blog.

Newly appointed Belgian PM Elio di Rupo stated in January 2009:

Killing in cold blood: "What the Israeli government is doing in cold blood - killing innocent people, killing women and children - is totally unacceptable and I think that what happened in some parts of the world, I mean some people were dragged before international courts, should happen to those men and women who are responsible for what is being done [in Gaza]. There is nothing that can justify killing civilians. Nothing can justify killing children, women ... people like you and me. [...] I believe that one day or another they will be brought to justice. "

Jews are remorseless: "I must tell you that I have more than sympathy for the Jewish population, I feel a form of love for them. But I also wish that the Palestinians live in prosperity and peace. And this cold blooded and remorseless attitude, while witnessing schools being destroyed and all those deaths, is unacceptable. It is totally unacceptable."  Soon after (March 2009) a Belgian Socialist (held in high regard by Mr Di Rupo) Pierre Galand (see below) created a ferociouly anti-Israel kangaroo court: the Russell tribunal on Palestine. Here. [1]

"I complained that while the Flemish Parliament maintained commercial and cultural treaties with Israel, similar agreements had been rejected by the Walloon and Brussels Parliaments.Wallonia had however, such agreements with Libya and Cuba. Di Rupo answered that he would correct this after the elections; yet he did nothing."

Israel's former ambassador to Belgium, Jehudi Kinar [photo]: "Di Rupo once said that he had not known there were poor Jews."  Interview by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld.

"Belgium is a country with a complex political system that is difficult to analyze. It is a federal state and there are tensions between its two major populations, the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons.

Now, 540 days after the last parliamentary elections, the Wallonian Socialist leader Elio di Rupo has been appointed prime minister of a broad six-partcoalition. An analysis of his and his party’s hostile attitude toward Israel for many years already, makes it easier to understand how he might conduct himself in future."

Jehudi Kinar was the Israeli Ambassador to Belgium and Luxemburg from 2003 until the end of 2007. Before that, he had foreign postings in the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, and Canada.

"The Socialist Party (PS) is currently the dominant party in Wallonia. Di Rupo was a big disappointment for me, yet I should have known better. After he returned from Israel in 1999 when he was Prime Minister of the Walloon Region Di Rupo said that he ‘had not known that there are poor Jews’.

During our first meeting I complained that while the Flemish Parliament maintained commercial and cultural treaties with Israel, similar agreements had been rejected by the Walloon and Brussels Parliaments.Wallonia had however, such agreements with Libya and Cuba. Di Rupo answered that he would correct this after the elections; yet he did nothing.

“We had several other bad experiences with the Socialists. In 2001, a politically motivated court case was brought against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israeli Generals Rafael Eitan and Amos Yaron, regarding their alleged involvement in the murders of Palestinians by Christian militia in the Lebanese refugee camps Sabra and Shatilla. We won in the District Court. [2]  Then in 2003, the Wallonian and Flemish Socialists, the Greens and the CDH – a Wallonian former Christian party — passed a rare retroactive change of law in the Senate which enabled prosecution of non-Belgian citizens for crimes committed elsewhere.

Belgian Jewish teen threatened with more violence changes school (update)

Update: Océane, the 13-year-old victim, received numerous threats this week - text messages, facebook and emails.  Her father is outraged and indicated that she will change schools.   Typically, the victim has to leave.  She and her sister were the only Jewish pupils in the school.  Her sister who is 16 and can defend herself better will remain in the school.

Background: Belgian Jews in shock over beating of 13-year-old girl (23/11/2011)

Some details have emerged since the incident was revealed.  Her father is Jewish and her mother is not.  But to all intents and purposes she is considered by her aggressors as being a "dirty Jew".  Oceane told a Flemish TV channel that for youngsters the word Jew has become an insult.  While she was being beatean only her friend tried to help, other teenagers who were at the scene just looked on.  She has been called several times "Dirty Jew", but it's the first time she was beaten.  Julien Klener warned that violence against Jews has become common in Brussels and that victims don't bother to report. Brussels Jewish parliamentarian, and author of the only book about contemporary antisemitism in Belgium, Viviane Teitelbaum indicated that she had received lots of emails from parents telling that their children are harrassed. Some have had to change school. Ms. Teitelbaum stated that time has come to ring alarm bells and make sure that antisemites cannot behave in the knowledge that their behaviour will go unpunished.  

Things are indeed unsettling to say the least.  A Belgian highschool teacher Pierre Piccinin complained on Facebook that he was being persecuted by the Jewish mafia and that soon fear will switch sides - meaning that soon it will be the Jews who will be afraid.  He has made several anti-Jewish remarks.  There were no reactions at all and he has now created an organisation to protect freedom of speech which he assumes the Jewish mafia is trying to take away from him and other like-minded people.

Arutz Sheva 7: Five Muslim Moroccan girls in Belgium beat a 13-year-old classmate, called her a "dirty Jew” and told her to "return your country.”

The girl, Oceane Sluijzer, has filed a complaint with police after the anti-Semitic attack at a sports training center. The attackers were identified and questioned by police.

Jewish legislator Viviane Teitelbaum of Brussels denounced the "silence" of political leaders and most of media after this attack.

Israeli law-makers verbally assaulted in Brussels

Mks Castigated in Brussels Restaurant

Some MKs participating in the Conference of the European Parliament in Brussels were verbally abused by a group of anti-Israel activists. MKs Anastasia Michaeli [photo], Yaakov Edri, Daniel Ben Simon, and Nachman Shai reported the assault at the entrance to a restaurant, but stressed that it was non-physical. (Maariv)