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The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism

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The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism THE STEPHEN ROTH INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM AND RACISM BELGIUM 2008/9 (By Prof. Joël Kotek) While Belgium witnessed a slight rise in antisemitic incidents in 2008, the number recorded in the first four months of 2009 equaled the total for the whole of 2008. The strengthening of ties between some mainstream francophone parties and Muslim immigrants was demonstrated by their joint participation in rallies, such as a pro-Hamas demonstration held on January 11, 2009. Sketches broadcast by the leading Flemish TV channel portraying Hitler in a humorous fashion were condemned by Jewish organizations as antisemitic provocation. 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 and Brussels. The Comité de Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique (Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium – CCOJB) in Brussels is the community’s roof organization. The Forum Der Joodse Organisaties (Forum of Jewish Organizations; hereafter, the Forum) is the Flemish equivalent of the (now) francophone CCJOB. As the seat of the European Union and NATO, Brussels attracts Jewish organizations and institutions seeking to advocate European Jewish or Israeli interests. In Antwerp most Jewish children attend religious schools, whereas the more secular Brussels, location of the Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif, has two lay Jewish schools and a religious one. Radio Judaica, the first European Jewish radio station, is centered in Brussels. There are two monthly publications: Regards, published by the Centre Communautaire laïc Juif, and Contact J, issued by the Cercle Ben Gourion. The state- mandated Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CECLR/CEOOR), includes the struggle against antisemitism in its brief. 1 POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS While separatist rhetoric in Belgium originated on the extreme right, it has entered the mainstream in Flanders, the Flemish part of Belgium. All Flemish parties across the political spectrum demand a new Belgian model − some kind of confederation which, in effect, would mean the end of Belgium − and reject unity between the rich north and the poor south (Wallonia). Flanders has not yet proclaimed its independence because it wants to include Brussels in the new state. However, although encircled by Flanders, Brussels is a separate region (Belgium has three: Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) whose population is 90 percent francophone. The Jewish population, even in Antwerp (Flanders), is francophone and pro- Belgian, and fears a secession. Immigrant and Islamist Groups Belgium is home to a large number of Muslim communities. In fact, according to demographers such as Eric Corijn of the Flemish University of Brussels (VUB), Brussels is already the western capital with the highest percentage of persons from Muslim cultures or professing the Muslim religion. Population projections show that in about 2030, Islam will be the first religion in Brussels, the capital of Belgium and Europe. Twenty percent of Brussels’ citizens originate in Muslim countries (about 7 percent in Belgium as a whole). The majority are naturalized Belgians or are Belgian by birth; thus, some 20 percent of Brussels’ regional MPs have Arab-Muslim roots, mostly in Morocco. All were elected on democratic lists, mostly Socialist (Socialist Party − PS), but also Green (Ecolo) and Christian Democratic (CdH) ones. Because of their French colonial history, most Belgians of North African origin vote for francophone 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, whose establishment was inspired by the French humorist and antisemite Dieudonné (see France). The Arab European League (AEL), an immigrant protest movement promoting the introduction of Islamic law (Shar`ia) into Europe “by democratic means,” was created in Antwerp in 2000. Its leader Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese-born Muslim, has aroused controversy due to his opposition to integration and to his demand to “de-zionize” Antwerp (see ASW 2003/4; also ASW 2006). 2 While Belgian Muslims do not aspire to form a political party of their own, they have become increasingly active in Belgian political life, gaining concomitantly more representation within the democratic parties, city councils and legislative bodies of the state, especially within the French-speaking PS, to which the Muslim vote has become crucial. In order to become the leading party in the Brussels region, the PS has turned, since the 1989 institutional reform creating the Brussels region, to the immigrant, particularly the Moroccan, community. This has meant, above all, that the traditional pro-Israel position of the PS in the Brussels region has been replaced by a very aggressive anti-Israel stand. The Swiss theologian Tariq Ramadan has close ties to the PS. 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 in the pro- Hamas demonstration held on January 11, 2009 during Israel’s Cast Lead Operation, with the exception of the liberal-conservative Reformist Movement (MR), and in contrast to France, where mainly extreme left parties took part in such rallies. During Israel’s Gaza operation (late December 2008-mid-January 2009), the local Muslim population demonstrated its ability to quickly organize a series of mass demonstrations over the period of the war. Most of these rallies 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. Local Muslim youth who joined this movement rapidly popularized those slogans. In Belgium, 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.” For instance, the Marxist-Leninist PTB/PVDA (Parti du Travail de Belgique) links the fight against capitalism and imperialism to the Hamas/Hizballah struggle against Israel. The messages of these groups combine classical and modern antisemitic motifs: Jews have undue influence in the world; the Jews are trying to exploit the Holocaust for their own gain, Israel’s attitude toward the Palestinians is in principle no different from that of the Nazis toward the Jews; and Israel is waging a war of extermination against the Palestinians. Among all progressive and leftist circles, the Jew who does not openly disown the State of Israel is considered the enemy of humankind. Indymedia Belgium (see also below) is one of the vectors of radical anti-Zionism and the new antisemitism. 3 Belgium, A Special Case Belgian attitudes toward Israel and even toward Judaïsm are also influenced by internal factors: 1) the Catholic tradition, which has been anti-Jewish since the Middle Ages; 2) difficulties in dealing with the Holocaust, especially in Flanders; anti-Zionism is thus a way to forget, forgive or trivialize Flemish collaborationism. For contemporary Belgium opposition to Israel serves the interests of many components of its society, on the left as well as on the right, Catholic as well as secular, immigrant as well as Walloon or Flemish. A veritable “cultural code,” anti-Zionism serves to express all sorts of resentments: failure to integrate, fear of globalization, class warfare and conspiracy theories, such as the 9/11 attacks and H1N1 influenza as Jewish plots. As in the Middle Ages, the Jew, reclassified as the Zionist, has become the primary cause of the world’s ills. If one is to believe the leading editorialists of Wallonia, Flanders and Brussels, all the frustrations of the Arab world are a result of non-resolution of the Palestinian question. By its very powerfulness and arrogance, Israel constitutes the main threat to world peace. No other issue commands such attention (or any attention at all) in Belgian universities. Flemish and French Political Parties The Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest − VB) succeeded the racist Vlaams Blok (see ASW 2004). After toning down some of the Blok’s extremist rhetoric, VB won significant percentages of the vote in Flanders. Despite its demonstrations of solidarity with the Jewish community since the creation of the AEL, and its more moderate tone in relation to the Holocaust and the Jews in general, the VB continues to retain ties with small neo-fascist and antisemitic groups, such as Voorpost, Were Di and the Vlaamse Militanten Orde (VMO). Besides being the leading political party in the city of Antwerp, having gained 35 percent of the overall vote in the 2004 elections, the VB is also the main Flemish political party in the Brussels regional parliament, with 6 out of the 17 seats held by Flemings. In September 2008, MEP Frank Vanhecke, one of the leaders of Vlaams Belang was interviewed by Israel’s Ha’aretz after the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs decided to lift his immunity (see below). Vanhecke said he was aware that many Jews viewed Vlaams Belang as antisemitic, but that this "misconception" was due in part to a "grave error" on the part of some Flemish secessionists who had sided with the Nazis in the 1940s "only as a misguided and naïve attempt to achieve independence." He also referred to "the unacceptable behavior of a few weeds" who associated themselves with the party, adding: 4 "They say I'm antisemitic when the truth is I am one of Israel's staunchest defenders in the European Parliament.” After the interview, the leader of the Forum Der Joodse Organisaties reaffirmed the necessity of the Cordon Sanitaire, a pact between all other Belgian parties pledging to refrain from joining any coalition with the VB.
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