Belgium: Jewish Organization Files Complaint Against Anti-Semitic Column

Herman Brusselmans is a Belgian (Flemish) writer who has caused quite a stir in his country with a recent column he wrote for Humo, a radio and TV magazine in Belgium. In the op-ed, Brusselmans wrote that every time he saw an image of a Palestinian boy screaming for his mother lying beneath rubble, it made him want to ram a sharp knife into the throat of every Jew he encountered.

In response, the European Jewish Association (EJA), a Jewish umbrella organization, is filing a criminal complaint against Brusselmans and Humo for incitement to murder and a hate crime. Humo insists the op-ed was satirical in nature, but has removed it nevertheless.

For more background on the matter, here is an article in Jewish Breaking News.

This article in the Belgian Dutch-language daily, Nieuwsblad, appeared earlier in the week and is translated from Dutch by Fousesquawk,.

Jewish organization appoints lawyer Sven Mary in the case against Herman Brusselmans

Source: Belga

Yesterday at 03:58

The European Jewish Association (EJA) is preparing a criminal complaint against Humo and writer Herman Brusselmans. The organization wants to charge Brusselmans for incitement to murder and a hate crime. The media group, DPG, is also in trouble. The Jewish umbrella organization is employing attorney Sven Mary.

EJA announced Tuesday that it is taking legal steps against Brusselmans because he was guilty of anti-Semitism in his column. On Thursday, EJA will come out with a more detailed statement on further steps. “EJA has decided to file a criminal case against Mr Brusselmans for incitement to murder and a hate crime, as well as a criminal case against the media group, the owners, the board members, and the editor in chief,” it says. 

The organization is looking at the legal options. There would be different ways to file a complaint: The complaint will reportedly be filed next week. Notable: The umbrella organization is being represented by attorney Sven Mar. Among others, he was the lawyer for the father of Sandra Dia in the Reuzegom case and has a lot of experience with anti-racism legislation. Sven Mary will collaborate with Brussels lawyer David Szafran and the legal service of EJA.

The equal opportunity institution, Unia, also announced it is filing a complaint against Humo and Brusselmans. Humo earlier refuted that the passage was an incitement to murder. “The statements of Herman Brusselmans were part of a satirical column, not from a journalistic article or an interview.  For whoever reads the complete column, it is obvious that Herman did not literally mean the sentences,” it says.  

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Fousesquawk comment: Even if Brusselmans was trying to be satirical, in this era of exploding anti-Semitism, it is hardly appropriate to make statements about wanting to kill every Jew you meet whether in humor or not. Even if you feel sympathy for the Gazans, it is wrong to hold every Jew in the world responsible. That is part of the definition of anti-Semitism as stated by the International Holocaust remembrance Alliance and our own State Department.

Those of us who are rightly horrified by the atrocities of October 7, 2o23 do not wish to kill every Palestinian or Arab we encounter on the street.

Finally, even if Humo wants to explain away the comment about stabbing Jews by calling it satire, Brusselman’s other comments about Jews in the op-ed give him away. The situation for Belgium’s Jews, like Jews all over Western Europe, is downright dangerous. We don’t need to be giving inspiration to angry, disaffected, radical Muslims in Europe or elsewhere who are all too ready to act out Brusselman’s fantasies.