Herman Briselmans, a regular personal columnist in the magazine HUMO, which is published in Belgium, writes horrifying things and the world is silent . It turns out that more and more there is a new trend of normalizing anti-Semitism
And so writes Briselmans – a well-known writer, poet and playwright – “With a clear mind I am closely following the coming World War III. The Middle East will explode, with serious consequences for the rest of the world. All this by a small, thick and bald Jew, who bears the ominous name of Bibi Netanyahu, And who for whatever reason wants to ensure that the entire Arab world will be dragged after him. For every Hamas or Hezbollah fighter killed by that Israeli army, hundreds of civilians Innocents are killed, many children among them, and the fate of our children in the supposedly safe West will be the same.
I see a picture of a Palestinian child crying and screaming calling for his mother who is lying under a mountain of waste, and I imagine that this child is Beni Roman, and the mother is my wife Lena, and I am so angry that I want to shove a sharp knife in the throat of every Jew I come across.”
In response to these sickening words of incitement, the Union of Jewish Organizations in Europe, EJA, appealed to the Attorney General of Belgium and demanded that the publicist be arrested for incitement to murder.
The organization also appealed to the journal’s system, demanding that the writer be suspended immediately – before he makes further use of Toro for the purpose of inciting the killing of Jews.
After the terrorist attack on October 7, the activities of the extreme left and Islamism accelerated. Anti-Jewish hatred mainly in the form of demonization and delegitimization of Israel has become a socially acceptable approach. Anti-Semitic incidents, increasingly directed at specific individuals or institutions, increased. Anti-Jewish attitudes were adopted and spread by more and more people who previously had no sympathy for political or ideological extremism. At the end of 2023, a completely new trend of normalizing anti-Semitism began.
The chairman of the EJA, Rabbi Menachem Margolin stated “Criticism of Israel – yes. Inciting the murder of Jews or the murder of any person – no and no. Freedom of speech ends exactly where expressing an opinion becomes a blatant incitement calling for the throats of Jews to be slit and we expect the Belgian authorities to clarify this with determined enforcement. The mere publication of this satanic column indicates a serious flaw in the judgment of the editors, and yet, when the words were published, we expect the system to conduct a due diligence
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of Rabbis of Europe (CER), said: “The published words of the well-known Belgian author and public figure Herman Briselmans, according to which ‘he wants to shove a sharp knife in the throat of every Jew he meets,’ are murderous incitement. The announcement of his intent to murder It is a shocking criminal offense. His despicable writing wrapped in freedom of expression and a legitimate political opinion must be treated with absolute condemnation and strict legal measures.”
Israel’s ambassador to Belgium, Idit Abu Rosenzweig, also responded to the column: “In a country where Jews are attacked every day and 70% report fearing for their lives. How was this edited? Anti-Semitism and the legitimization of violence should be a red line even for a verbal tantrum by an ‘intellectual’ in a magazine leftist”. She added that if things had been published against Muslims – there would have been a big storm.
