The Flemish novelist and columnist Herman Brusselmans accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of murdering children and dragging the world into World War III in his regular Flemish HUMO magazine column published in Belgium. In his writing, he incited violence against Jews as a result of the ongoing war in Gaza.
"For every Hamas or Hezbollah fighter killed by that Israeli shitty army, hundreds of innocent civilians are killed, and we can do nothing but keep repeating that many of them are children," he wrote adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to wipe out the Arab world.
"The Middle East will explode, with unruly consequences for the rest of the world. And all this by a small, thick and bald Jew, who bears the ominous name of Bibi Netanyahu. I see a picture of a Palestinian child crying and screaming completely beyond all senses to his mother lying under the debris, and I imagine that this child is my son Roman, and the mother is my friend 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, the Union of Jewish Organizations in Europe, EJA, appealed to the Attorney General of Belgium and demanded that the columnist be arrested for incitement to murder. The organization also appealed to the magazine, demanding that the Brusselmans be suspended immediately.
"The publication of this disgusting column indicates a serious flaw in the judgment of the editors. We demand a full apology in public for its publication and the suspension of the writer involved." chairman of the EJA, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, said.
Israel's ambassador to Belgium, Idit Abu Rosenzweig, said antisemitism and legitimizing violence must be a red line. "What if someone said in Belgian press 'I’m so angry I want to stick a knife in the neck of every Muslim I meet?' Herman Brusselmans did. In Belgium press. But relax! It wasn’t about Muslims, it was just about Jews. In a country where Jews are attacked daily and 70% report fear for their lives. How did this pass editing?"
A surge in antisemitism in the Czech Republic
The Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic (FJC) said on Tuesday that in 2023, 4,328 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the country, compared to 2,277 incidents in 2022. This is a 90% increase.
According to the federation's data, physical antisemitic violence was rare in the Czech Republic. In the last five years, only two violent attacks were reported to the FJC (2020 and 2021). The Czech Republic remains a safe country for Jews in 2023. About 3,000 Jews and thousands of Israelis live in the country.
Until the end of 2023, antisemitic narratives were associated with Russian aggression against Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediately after the terrorist attack on October 7, there was a shift in global antisemitism which deeply affected the Czech Republic as well.
Monthly statistics indicate a considerable increase in antisemitism in the last quarter of 2023. In January-September, 2,528 incidents were recorded, 58.41% of the incidents taking place this year. After October 7, 1,800 more incidents were recorded, accounting for 41.59% of the incidents in 2023. Between January and September 2023, the average monthly increase compared to 2022 was 50.03%. In the October-December period, the average increase was 254.32% per month.
Until 2019, the biggest threat to the Jewish community was the extreme right. Between 2020-2023, amid the COVID pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine, disinformation online became prevalent and popular.
After the Hamas massacre on October 7, the extreme left and radical Islamic antisemitic hate speech spread mainly in the form of demonization and delegitimization of Israel as a socially acceptable approach. Antisemitic incidents increased against individuals and institutions and extreme political activists adopted antisemitic rhetoric. At the end of 2023, there was a completely new trend of normalizing antisemitism.
EJA officials explain to the public that to ascertain if the statement is a criticism or antisemitic, it would have to pass the 3D test, according to former Jewish Agency chief Natan Sharansky. "The first D is the test of demonization. When the Jewish state is being demonized; when Israel’s actions are blown out of all sensible proportion; when comparisons are made between Israelis and Nazis and between Palestinian refugee camps and Auschwitz – this is antisemitism, not legitimate criticism of Israel," he said.
"The second D is the test of double standards when criticism of Israel is applied selectively; when Israel is singled out by the United Nations, for human rights abuses while the behavior of known and major abusers, such as China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, is ignored; when Israel’s Magen David Adom, alone among the world’s ambulance services, is denied admission to the International Red Cross – this is antisemitism. The third D is the test of delegitimization: when Israel’s fundamental right to exist is denied – alone among all peoples in the world – this too is antisemitism," Sharansky said.