Belgium: Jewish student tells of constant harassment, and the teachers didn't care

Eli Mendelbaum interviewed Belgians about their atttiude towards Jews.

Q: What's your position on Jews?

Simon De Clark, Student: I think in Israel, Jews are doing a bit the same sometimes like when they lived in Europe in the past in the Second World War. They are building walls, and they are putting people in the place that they have been on their own. They are putting people in a ghetto, the Palestinians, while they have been put in ghettos themselves.  I think they should think about it, and use their position, and shouldn't do it to all the peoples because they are... because there aren't that many populations who have experienced it like them.


Q: Is there antisemitism in Belgium?

Ashraf: What we see today is that racism has a hierarchy.  I'm completely against racism, but there's a hierarchy, where antisemitism is on the top, and on the very bottom is racism against blacks.  It shows the status of Israel in the world today.


Jeremy De Book, a Jewish student says that he experienced a lot of harassment.  When he put his jacket outside the classroom, often he found pictures of Hitler, Mussolini or Jews dying in his pockets.  Or friends put up a lighter to his face, to make him shut up, or to see how he'd react or to have a fight. Or they tell him to shut up in class, saying there's a line to the gas chambers.

This was done in front of the teachers, who didn't really care.


 Philip Markovich, President of the Great Synagogue of Brussels: Europe, and not just Belgium, has a certain amount of antisemitism, but the importance of antisemitism shouldn't exaggerated.   Most Belgians aren't antisemitic.


More: Ynet (+ interview clip), h/t CFCA