Open letter to Belgium's PM Alexander De Cro: Don't give up on your Jewish community

Brussels, 3 April 2024

Dear Prime Minister, ? The Jewish presence in Belgium is ancestral and there is no need to describe the many contributions of Jewish Belgians to the economic, social, scientific, political, cultural or literary development of our country. ? The Jewish community has always been perfectly integrated into Belgian society, with a spirit of non-communitarian openness. ? In recent years, it has suffered the effects of ever-increasing anti-Semitism, which has literally exploded since October 7, 2023. ? After the shock, extreme sadness and anger provoked by the barbarity of unspeakable cruelty of the October 7 pogrom, she lives in deep concern about her own safety as she feels a strong hostility towards it. ? Worse, in the absence of any real expressions of empathy, she felt isolated and abandoned, so much so that many Jews wondered about their future in Belgium. ? For the most part, Jewish Belgians have an attachment to the State of Israel and they strongly support its existence and security. ? October 7 is an existential threat to the State of Israel, against which it had a duty to defend itself by protecting its population, and the world's major democracies have agreed on this essential right. ? You said so yourself in the days following October 7. ? When you received family members of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas, you said that hostage-taking was an intolerable war crime and that putting pressure on Hamas had influence. ? Since you went to the Middle East with your Spanish colleague, your speech has turned into a strong hostility towards Israel, with Belgium leading the way among European countries in its radical criticism of the Israeli response. ? Your recent positions make no reference to the barbaric crimes of 7 October, without mentioning the abject femicides, rapes and mutilations suffered by Israeli women, without even demanding the release of the hostages held captive for nearly six months, and without expressing our country's solidarity with the Israeli people. ? You have even asked Israel to demonstrate that it does not use starvation as a weapon of war, thus requiring the provision of negative evidence against any elementary rule that requires a prosecutor to provide proof of his accusations. ? Several members of your government have themselves participated in this radical attitude against Israel, through statements that are astonishing in their aggressiveness, such as Mrs De Sutter who called for a boycott of Israel and to act before the International Court of Justice as South Africa did, such as Mrs Gennez also calling for action before the same Court or accusing Germany of finding itself on the wrong side of history for a second time, Thus proceeding to assimilate Israel to the Nazi state, as Mrs. Khattabi had difficulty in describing Hamas as a terrorist. ? You know the direct link between the situation in the Middle East and the explosion of anti-Semitism and the assimilation made by too many people between Israel and the Jews, whom they blame for a war 4,000 km away, for which they are in no way responsible. ? Our purpose is not to enter into an in-depth analysis of all the mechanisms of this war, the consequences of which for all civilian populations upset us, but to draw your attention to the direct consequences for our community of what can be described as the polarization of the State and the importation of the conflict at the highest level of the State. ? It is this importation of the conflict that puts us in direct danger and worries us to the highest degree, in fear of acts being carried out. ? We call on you and your government to express a nuanced and balanced position, as do many of your European counterparts, particularly the French and Germans, who have constantly recalled the barbaric atrocities of 7 October and called for the release of the hostages, who it is not too strong to say are really in hell. ? The conclusions of the European Summit of 21 and 22 March 2024 also elaborated a more balanced position than the one defended by Belgium. ? Is it angelic to think that demanding that a terrorist organization release all hostages, thus putting an end to despicable war crimes, and surrender its arms, would be the instant end of war? This is what the German Foreign Minister recently demanded. ? Through the expression of a balanced position, we can hope for a de-escalation in Belgium of the current extreme polarisation, which we believe you are concerned about, in your role of ensuring peace and social cohesion. ? By abandoning Israel in this way, you are abandoning your Jewish community. ? Why, here in Belgium, during the terrible desecration of nearly a hundred graves in the Jewish cemetery of Marcinelle or that of the surroundings of the Jewish cemetery of Kraainem, were demonstrations of indignation and empathy so rare within the political world and the government, where, in France, in similar circumstances, the President of the Republic goes there, thus underlining the consideration of the seriousness of such acts? ? Why, on March 8, during the march on the occasion of International Women's Day, when a group of Jewish women were showing their solidarity with Israeli women who were victims of femicide, rape, mutilation, torture, ill-treatment and hostage-taking on October 7, they were shoved and threatened by a group of pro-Palestinian men with the slogan "they are Zionists, encircle them" and, fortunately, they were able to escape and thus avoid the worst, this in silence and without official indignation, while, at the same time, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was sounding the alarm, precisely about the shocking increase in extremist disorder and criminality, linked to Islamist movements? ? Why, when the European institutions are calling on the Member States to draw up, by the end of 2022, a strategy to combat antisemitism and to appoint a national coordinator for the fight against antisemitism to this end, are we content, on 15 January 2024, to launch an interfederal coordination mechanism to combat antisemitism, following the Antisemitism Monitoring Unit created in 2004 which has had no tangible results, Has this mechanism made it clear from the outset that it does not have the ambition to develop the expected strategy? ? It is time to echo the pressing concerns of Jewish Belgians, it is time to listen to them, it is high time to appoint an independent national coordinator and to give him the means to finally develop a strategy to combat anti-Semitism. ? Mr. Prime Minister, do not abandon your Jewish community. ? ?

Yves Oschinsky

President of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations of Belgium (CCOJB) ? Baronne Regina Right Présidente du Forum der Joodse Organisaties (FJO)