Belgium: Catholic school supports teacher who won prize at Iran Holocaust-mocking cartoon contest

Luc Descheemaeker (aka O-Sekoer) of Belgium was awarded a special prize ("honorable mention") at the infamous Holocaust cartoon contest organised by the Iranians.  He also received $ 1,000 cash prize.

Luc Descheemaeker teaches art and "culture" at the Sint-Jozefsinstituut at Torhout, a catholic school in Flanders.  Regards, a Belgian Jewish magazine, (July 2016 issue) contacted the school and was told that they were immensely proud ("très fière") that one of their teachers had been awarded the prize.  The matter seems to have rested there.

On 18 December, Luc Descheemaeker proudly posted on his blog his award-winning Iran Holocaust-mocking cartoon "embellished" with a drawing by British street artist Banksy, titled Report Descheemaeker vs BANKSY in Tehran (see Resistart too). Whereas Banksy is an original artist, Luc Descheemaeker's work is unimaginative and dull resorting to the recycling of conventional images. It is extremely doubtful that Banksy and any serious artist would stoop so low as to take part in a Holocaust-mocking contest considering the theme and the number of Holocaust deniers and Jew haters that took part.

On 16 March, Descheemaeker posted the cartoon with a Banksy addition again (linking to a Syrian blog - http://o-sekoer.blogspot.be/2016/03/o-sekoer-cartoon-in-picture-in-syria.html):

At the award ceremony in Teheran, which he did not attend but was in contact by videolink, he boasted to have accepted an invitation for a "personal exhibition in Teheran in 2017".
 
Descheemaeker is much appreciated by his Catholic school, the media (Nieuwsblad reported that he had won a prize in Iran, but not a word about the content) and the local authorities at Turhout. Except for two Belgian Jewish magazines, the fact that he participated in an antisemitic contest doesn't seem to bother many people in Belgium.

The carton below is by Zéon, known for his antisemitism, and won the first prize.  It was lifted from Alain Soral's blog Egalité et Réconciliation an posted by Descheemaeker - which goes to show something about his tastes and leanings.  Alain Soral is a friend of Dieudonné who hates Jews and gays.

Other drawings by Zéon: 

Belgium: Antisemitic cartoonist named 'cultural ambassador' for Belgian town

Via Elder of Ziyon: 

Luc Descheemaeker (aka O-Sekoer) has been named the "cultural ambassador par excellence" for the city of Torhout, Belgium. 

Belgian news site Nieuwsblad says he deserves the award because his cartoons have been shown worldwide. 

This is true. He was a winner of Iran's Holocaust Cartoon contest with this entry.

The town of Torhout is quite aware of this because there was worldwide publicity for the school he taught at honoring him despite this clearly antisemitic cartoon. 

And he has drawn other antisemitic cartoons as well, like this one that blames Jews for being blown up by terrorists:

This one with a similar motif doesn't bother with the seeming even handedness of the previous cartoon, squarely blaming Jews for terrorism:

There is no way for any honest person to interpret these cartoons as anything but antisemitism. 

A JTA reporter in Belgium who covered the previous honor for Descheemaeker was shaken by the tacit support for antisemitic expression in Belgium:  

I wanted to see if this see-no-evil approach from government offices in a country whose leaders often declare a zero-tolerance attitude to anti-Semitism surprised me. But the real shock was the response from the Belgian media to JTA’s coverage of the affair.

De Morgen, one of Belgium’s largest and best-respected dailies, ran an article that omitted reference to Descheemaeker’s caricatures of Jews. It described the Iranian competition as a “controversial” affair “themed on the Holocaust,” which the paper said was instituted as a statement about freedom of expression following the publication of insulting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark. 

(UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, had called the contest “a mockery of the genocide of the Jewish people.”) 

Descheemaeker, who is described in the paper as an internationally acclaimed caricaturist, is quoted as saying in reaction to the uproar created by his work: “There is still such a thing as freedom of expression.”
Knack, a popular news site, took the same editorial line. 

Confused, I reached out to Joel Rubinfeld, founder of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism and former president of the CCOJB umbrella group of French-speaking Belgian Jewish communities. I wanted to know whether Belgian education officials were more tolerant of expressions of anti-Semitism than their counterparts from other Western European countries.
“It’s a problem,” he said. “We’ve encountered a number of cases where schools did not take the necessary measures when Jewish pupils were targeted in anti-Semitic bullying, for example.” 

A teacher who last year told a Jewish high school student, “We should put you all on freight wagons,” was allowed to keep his job following an internal inquiry. It ended with him apologizing while denying any anti-Semitic intent in the first place. 

Cases involving anti-Semitic abuse among students are regularly ignored at Belgian schools, “which don’t apply the measures necessary to make these cases stop,” Rubinfeld said. 

One student was forced to leave his public school and was enrolled in a private Jewish one last year following harassment, which included a threat to “break his skull” if he showed support for Israel. Also last year, the Belgian media reported on the online shaming by classmates of a pro-Israel high school student. He also left the public education system for a Jewish school.

read more

More about Luc Descheemaeker (aka O-Sekoer):

Belgium: Catholic school supports teacher who won prize at Iran Holocaust-mocking cartoon contest

Belgium: Jews are Nazis, Trump is a Nazi - guess who isn't a Nazi?

Belgian high school ‘proud’ of teacher honored at Iran’s Holocaust cartoon show

One can safely assume that if a teacher in Germany, France, UK, Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe had taken part in the anti-semitic Teheran cartoon contest, there would have been some criticism, and it is doubtful that it would have been a cause for "pride" for many.  Sadly, not in Belgium.  No criticism, only pride.  It should also be noted that the Holocaust and the fight against antisemitism is often used in Europe as a political tool to fight the Far Right.

Background: Belgium: Catholic school supports teacher who won prize at Iran Holocaust-mocking cartoon contest 

Cnaan Liphshiz writes @ JTA

Faculty at a Catholic high school in Belgium said they were proud of a senior teacher who won an award and a cash prize at Iran’s controversial cartoon contest about the Holocaust.

Luc Descheemaeker, who this summer retired from the Sint-Jozefs Institute high school in the city of Torhout, 60 miles west of Antwerp, accepted a “special prize” at the Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest in Tehran in May for a drawing of the words “arbeit macht frei” over a wall with guard posts — presumably comparing Israel’s security barrier along the West Bank with the gates at Auschwitz.

The German sentence, which means “work sets you free,” was featured on a gate of the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland. Descheemaeker, who spoke at the competition via a video uplink from Belgium, won $1,000 for the cartoon, organizers said. The first-prize entry was a drawing of a cash register shaped like Auschwitz.

UNESCO, the United Nations educational organization, has condemned the cartoon contest — the second organized in Iran since 2006 — as aiming “at a mockery of the genocide of the Jewish people, a tragic page of humanity’s history.”  [...]

Asked by JTA whether the school is proud specifically of Descheemaeker’s award, director Paul Vanthournout said Wednesday that the school had no position on the award [...]            

But Vanthournout confirmed the school was proud of Descheemaeker’s work within the institution, where he taught plastic arts and cultural sciences. Descheemaeker has put on educational plays about the Holocaust at school, Vanthournout said. In 2002, Descheemaeker won a royal distinction from Queen Paola of Belgium for staging a play about the Holocaust for children, an adaptation of Art Spiegelman’s award-winning graphic memoir “Maus.”

“I understand you find criticism on Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza unpleasant,” Vanthournout wrote to JTA, “but your consideration of it as anti-Semitic is exaggerated.”

According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance – an intergovernmental organization with 31 member states, including Belgium – “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of modern anti-Semitism.

Vanthournout said the school’s position is that the Holocaust, which he said “featured atrocities of hitherto unseen proportions,” cannot be compared or likened to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. But the Holocaust, he added, “cannot serve as an alibi to solving conflicts with violence.”

According to the Belgian school’s newsletter, which published an interview in June with Descheemaeker ahead of his retirement, the former teacher has accepted an offer to travel to Tehran to be a judge at the competition’s next edition.

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Belgium: Jews are Nazis, Trump is a Nazi - guess who isn't a Nazi?

Luc Descheemaeker (aka O-Sekoer) is a Belgian cartoonist who won an 'honourable mention' in Iran's Holocaust-denying cartoon contest.

You would think that this would make him a pariah.  But apparently not.  Belgian media proudly report that his new cartoon, comparing Trump to Hitler, is a hit.  They just forgot to mention that he supports people who openly incite to kill Jews.

Jewish reporter Cnaan Liphshiz wrote about how this case made his realize that Belgian society simply does not care about antisemitism.

Nothing has changed since.

Descheemaeker thinks Jews are Nazis:

Another antisemitic Descheemaeker cartoon:

 

Descheemaeker thinks Trump is a Nazi:

Sadly, in this case, this cartoon says more about Descheemaeker and Belgian society than it does about Trump.

Belgium: How my JTA reporting about an anti-Semitic cartoon changed my views of Belgium — for the worse

Cnaan Liphshiz @ JTA:

I used to think I had a pretty good understanding of what it means to be Jewish in Belgium.  A longtime observer of that polarized binational country, whose dysfunctions and successes often reflect those of the European Union headquartered in its capital, Brussels, I have family ties there and am fluent in the local languages.

But I had to readjust my understanding of Belgian Jewry’s circumstances this month while reporting on a local Catholic school’s stated pride in and support for a teacher who had published anti-Semitic caricatures, and who recently won a cash prize at Iran’s Holocaust mockery cartoon competition.

Shielded by education officials’ wall of silence and celebrated in mainstream Belgian media as a champion of free speech, Luc Descheemaeker was able to pass off anti-Semitic imagery as legitimate criticism of Israel in a way that I had thought impossible in an established Western democracy in the heart of Europe.

As Descheemaeker’s advocates circled the wagons around him — his school praised him as working to preserve, not distort, the memory of the Holocaust — I saw firsthand how anti-Israel vitriol has mainstreamed classic anti-Semitism in a country where Jews are leaving partly because they feel their children can no longer comfortably attend the public schools.

My Belgian eye opener began with a post on The New Antisemite blog, which tracks anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe. It said the vice director of the Sint Jozef Institute high school near Antwerp had told a Belgian Jewish publication that she was “very proud” of Descheemaeker after he won $1,000 and a special mention at the Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest in Tehran.

An Orthodox Jew waits to bludgeon
a peaceful Arab baby and his mother
with a giant Star of David

The winning entry by Descheemaeker, a plastic arts teacher who retired this year, was a drawing of the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” over Israel’s security barrier along the West Bank. The German sentence, which means “work sets you free,” was featured on a gate of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland.
Previously, I found, Descheemaeker had published at least two cartoons that used classically anti-Semitic imagery. In one,  an Orthodox Jew waits to bludgeon a peaceful Arab baby and his mother with a giant Star of David. In another, the Jew is waiting to startle a jihadist who is holding a shopping bag while wearing an explosives vest — presumably so she blows herself up. [...]

As Belgian Jews continue to grapple with the anti-Semitism problem in their country — in 2014, a suspected jihadist was arrested for the shooting deaths of four people at the Jewish museum in Brussels — a growing number are deciding to look for a new home.

Last year, 287 Jews immigrated to Israel from Belgium, which has a Jewish population of about 40,000. It was the highest figure recorded in a decade. From 2010 to 2015, an average of 234 Belgian Jews made aliyah annually — a 56 percent increase over the annual average of 133 new arrivals from Belgium in 2005-2009, according to Israeli government data.

“In Belgium, the choice for Jews is often between abuse or ghettoization,” Rubinfeld said. “It’s not surprising that a growing number of Belgian Jews are finding alternatives to both.”

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Belgium: Government-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign draws criticism

Note: The Association Belgo-Palestinienne Wallonie-Bruxelles (ABP) was set up 42 years ago - it is very likely the oldest running anti-Israel organisation in the world.  It has the backing of the Wallonie-Brussels establishment... and is headed by Pierre Galand, a socialist and the head of the European Humanist Association (you couldn't make it up, or could you?). More on Pierre Galand HERE.   

Via Regards:

History professor Joël Kotek reports that the Federation Wallonia-Brussels (the French-speaking Belgian Community which does not include Flanders) - ruled by a Socialist-Christian coalition - is proudly sponsoring a campaign that, to say the least, is nauseating. 

Joël Kotek contends that, if you take a close look at the campaign arguments, it advocates the obliteration of Israel, a sovereign State and a member of the Community of Nations since 1948.

Kotek argues conclusively that this is precisely the meaning of the slogan released by its promoters: Palestine, "50 years of occupation, 70 years of dispossession, 100 years of injustice".

Not content with delegitimizing the existence of Israel, the campaign also plays on the worst anti-Semitic clichés, as Father David Brombart pointed out in a letter to Cardinal Joseph De Kesel.

"The theme of the campaign is "Undo the Occupation, not the Palestinians"(...), and the poster portrays a Palestinian child writing on a blackboard covered by the shadow of an armed Israeli soldier who no doubt is ready to "erase" this girl as soon as he is given the order. This is the standard antisemitic cliché of the Jewish child-killer".

The Association Belgo-Palestinienne Wallonie-Bruxelles draws on the codes of traditional anti-Semitism, notwithstanding the fact that it is supported by Christians (MOC), Socialists (PAC and Socialist Solidarity) and a far-left Jewish fringe group (UPJB).

Benoît Bourgine, a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, sent a letter to the secretary general of the Christian Labor Movement (MOC) stating that 

"... under the pretext of defending the Palestinians, this image bears the hallmarks of an anti-Semitic-based manipulation ... since it reduces the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a face-to-face confrontation between a soldier and a little girl ... Do you still see no connection with the archetype of the killer-Jew that goes far back a long way in the collective memory? ".

Koted fully agrees.   He draws the attention to the strange similarity of this poster with numerous Nazi caricatures. In Germany in the 1930s, children were equally presented as the ultimate target of the Jews in a register that is found in this poster. 

Professor Kotek also writes about Luc Descheemaeker (aka O-Sekoer), an antisemitic cartoonist named 'cultural ambassador' for a Belgian town...

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2017/03/antisemitic-caroonist-named-cultural.html
Sponsors:

By the way, the Belgian people are not taken in by the heinous campaign. So far only 1140 people have signed the petition...

Dozens of European cartoonists sign up to Iranian Holocaust Cartoon contest

Israel = Nazis, according to Iran

Dozens of Europeans signed up to Iran's Holocaust cartoon contest.   These included artists from Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal , Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, Ukraine.

Top countries are Turkey and France, with 17 cartoonists each.  All other countries have 1-8 representatives.

The antisemitic artists are listed below by country.

Belgium
Geoffrey Delavallee
Luc Descheemaeker
Nancy Staquet
Siegfried Verbeke
Tom Herck
Tom Huylebroeck


Bosnia-Herzegovina
Resad Sultanovic


Bulgaria
Anatoliy Stankulov
Valentin Georgiev


Croatia
Ivan Sabolic
Maja Duvnjak
Tomislav Kaurin


Czech Republic
Jiri Srna


Denmark
Mads Hansen


Estonia
Enn Ehala


France
Abderrazak Slim
Bernard Bouton
Charly Billaud
Dedko
Depre Patrice
Emile Pradier
Jack Exily
Jean Celestin
Julien Schutz
Krapo Kibave
Nicolas
Pablo Utiel
Ramo
Sani
Thomas Losfeld
Vincent Bachelot
Zeon


Germany
Pavel Constantin
Stefan Dierkes
Steffen Jahsnowski


Greece
Ovidiu Serb

Hungary
Balazs Ambrus
Kosztya
Krebsz Andras
Lendvai Zoltan


Poland
Henryk Cebula


Portugal 
Ricardo Ferreira
Santiagu


Romania
Bogdan Petry
Horia Crisan
Marin Chiorean
Stanila Liviu
Pavel Constantin


Russia
Alexander Mikhailovich
Igor Kreditski
Misha
Viacheslav Ashkanov


Serbia
Aleksandar Blatnik
Bobisa Todorovic
Borislav Stankovic
Goran Celicanin
Imre Molnar
Mileta Miloradovic
Miroslav Jakovljev
Zoltan Filep


Slovakia
Michal J.Gross
Tomas Ferencak - no such cartoonist, apparently a mistake on Iran's part


Spain
Juliano Rodriguez
Pablo Saz Yunquera
Reinaldo Pagan Avila


Sweden
Linus Persson


Switzerland 
Bernard Junod
Cyclone B
Luca Ionel


Turkey
Burak Uzun
Emrah Arikan
Erdogaan Basol
Firat Sarac
Faruk Soyarat
Halit Kurtulmus
Hayrettin Oturgan
Hicabi Demirci
Mehmet Ali Gunes
Metin Azmaz
Muammer Olcay
Musa Gumus
Musa Kilicaslan
Omer Cam
Taner Ozek
Tonguc Karakoc
Turan Aksoy


UK 
Kat Ziolkowska


Ukraine
DubovSKY Alexander

Europe: Khomeini was an enthusiastic “connoisseur” of European anti-Semitism

Ben Cohen @ The Tower:

Bernard Bouton, France

JNS.org – A haredi Jew looks into a mirror and sees the face of Adolf Hitler gazing back at him. The walls and guard towers of Auschwitz are squeezed into a snow shaker, with flying dollar bills replacing the fake snowflakes. Another haredi Jew waves a swastika-shaped fan at an Israeli flag, which blows furiously atop a corpse draped in a Palestinian flag.
Not enough? There’s more. The gates of Auschwitz, adorned with the deadly motto “Arbeit Macht Frei,” swing open to reveal the Al-Aqsa mosque, which sits on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, devils’ horns jutting from his forehead, gives a Nazi salute; instead of his usual business suit, he wears a bloodstained brown uniform, with a Star of David rendered as a swastika decorating the sleeve.

Pablo Utiel, France

These are just a selection of the entries submitted to Iran’s latest Holocaust cartoon contest, currently on display in Tehran at the none-too-subtly named Islamic Propaganda Organization. By and large, the cartoons are crudely drawn, in keeping with the themes that they promote. [...]

This is not a recent development, nor is it related to Israeli policy or anything Israel actually does. Anti-Semitism among Iran’s Islamists in fact precedes the creation of the State of Israel. In his excellent book “Germany and Iran: From the Aryan Axis to the Nuclear Threshold,” German historian Matthias Kuentzel described the massive audience in Iran for Radio Zeesen, a Nazi propaganda outlet that

Zeon, France, won first prize

broadcasted programming in Farsi. Among the listeners was the figurehead of Iranian Islamism, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. According to Kuentzel, Khomeini was an enthusiastic “connoisseur” of European anti-Semitism. “They are liars and determined,” Khomeini wrote in a tract entitled “The Islamic State.” There was also the following claim, based on the same wretched fantasies that lead to Holocaust denial: “We see today that the Jews (may God curse them) have meddled with the text of the Qur’an and have made certain changes in the Qur’ans they have printed in the occupied territories.”

These same views prevail among Iran’s leaders today, no matter what [Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad] Zarif says. Indeed, to disavow Khomeini would be unthinkable in the current context, as demonstrated by the recent election of Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati as head of the “Assembly of Experts,” a key ruling body that chooses the supreme leader.

Luc Descheemaeker Belgium, won
honorable mention

Jannati is a boilerplate fanatic who leads chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at Friday prayers. It was Jannati who, in 2009, backed then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s blood-drenched crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators. The regime that existed in 2009 still exists today, with the same mechanisms of fearsome repression at its disposal. It cannot be reformed, and certainly not from within. But—heretical as it is to say this—it can, and should, be overthrown.

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Steffen Jahsnowski, Germany

Santiagu, Portugal

Luca Ionel, Switzerland

Thomas Losfeld, France

Cartoons: Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest

France: Cartoonist Zeon wins Iranian Holocaust-denial contest

French cartoonist Zeon is the winner of Iran's 2nd International Holocaust cartoon contest in the 'cartoon' category.  Other Europeans won special mentions in both the cartoon  and caricature categories.


Via Teheran Times:

Speaking at the ceremony, the secretary of the competition, Masud Shojaei-Tabatabai said, “One of the subjects we asked cartoonists to focus on was why the Western countries arrest any scholar who doubts the Holocaust while they put no limit on freedom of speech in other categories.”

“The other subject was why Palestinians should pay for the Holocaust… we are concerned about the modern Holocaust that is being sought by the Zionist regime, which is known as a child killer government,” he added.

Zeon (France, first prize)

Misha (Russia, special prize)

Luc Descheemaeker (Belgium , special prize)

Hicabi Demirci (Turkey, special prize)

Santiagu (Portugal, special prize)