Belgium: Former minister says (the lobby) foments hate of Arabs in the West to justify Israel politics

Philippe Moreaux, a former Belgian francophone socialist minister, told Maghreb Tv, based in Brussels, that there is a sort of contagion of the Israeli-Palestinian problem and that some [the Jewish lobby ?] have an interest in exacerbating animosites here to mirror what happens there.

He argued that it is obvious that in the West it [the Jewish lobby ?] works to spread hatred of Arabs in order to justify the politics of Israel.

More: Philosémitisme

In 2009,  Mr. Philippe Moureaux was senator and the mayor of the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels.  He told Le Vif/L'Express:

"It saddens me, today, that they [the Jews] deny the right of diversity to Muslims".

According to Joël Rubinfeld, chairman of the CCOJB (Umbrella Organization of Jewish Institutions of Belgium), the phrasing is vague, "but it's clear that he stigmatizes a community unnecessarily". He points out the the number of anti-Jewish acts has increased since 2000.

Rubinfeld says he doesn't understand what right to diversity the Jews have enjoyed. What privileges have they received that they would deny their fellow Muslims, he asks. And who among the representatives of the Jewish community denies this alleged right to diversity to the Muslim community in the country? The president of the CCOJB says that this statement is dangerous, since 'it instills in the minds of our fellow Muslims the treacherous idea that the Jews are their opponents on the way to successful integration, setting one community against another. Rubinfeld says that Philippe Moureaux has a lot of prestige among the Muslims, and they can now infer from his words that all their problems are the fault of the Jews.

More: Islam in Europe (2009)