2023-11-22 13:25:00
The new Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt left this Monday to meet members of the Shmira (the volunteers who ensure the security of Jewish places, Editor’s note) in Antwerp who sent him a letter to express their concerns. . Since the start of the conflict, more than 90 fines for anti-Semitic incidents have been recorded by the Antwerp police.
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Jews in Belgium increasingly fear for their security. On the side of Unia, the center for equal opportunities, we are observing a resurgence of anti-Semitic acts and speeches. “Experience unfortunately shows us that when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict experiences episodes of war, terrorism, reprisals which are highly publicized, this provokes essentially anti-Semitic acts and remarks in Belgium, even if sometimes comments appear anti-Arab or anti-Muslim,” explains Patrick Charlier, director of Unia.
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Thus, since October 7, Unia has received reports or itself opened files directly linked to the conflict for comments or acts qualified as anti-Semitic, including those relating to negationism. “In one month, Unia recorded 52 reports related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 43 cases, Jewish ancestry is clearly mentioned. The majority of reports concern speech and hate speech,” he specifies. “For comparison, Unia received, in 2022, four to five reports per month relating to anti-Semitism.”
Projectiles thrown at Jewish children in Antwerp
Concretely, two files concern a hate crime (attack on a Jewish couple at Ypres station and throwing objects from a balcony in Antwerp with Jewish children targeted). In these two cases, Unia is in close contact with the prosecution. On the other hand, Unia only handled one case of discrimination against a person of Tunisian origin who was refused employment “taking into account the current context.”
How, then, can we explain such a disproportion between reports against the Jewish population and those against Muslims? First of all, the number of deaths recorded since October 7 seems to play a role in this “selective indignation”. “Historically, there is more empathy and closeness with the Palestinian cause than with the Israeli cause. There is unfortunately a shortcut that is made in relation to the fact that Jews must be able to justify themselves in relation to the actions of the Israeli government which is much less the case for Arab-Muslims who are not asked to position themselves in relation to to the actions of Hamas,” explains Patrick Charlier.
“There is a direct link between the intensity of the war in the Middle East and the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.”
An observation shared by Caroline Sägesser, researcher at the Center for Socio-Political Research and Information (CRISP). “Discrimination against Muslims manifests itself more in discrimination in hiring but less in threats to their security. We do not have, for example, reinforced protection of Muslim places of worship as we have for synagogues,” she explains. “We realize that there is a direct link between the intensity of the war in the Middle East and the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. In the state Currently, we can however fear that there will be no drop in the intensity of anti-Semitic incidents until the ceasefire is declared. We can just hope that this does not degenerate in a violent and dramatic way .”
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