Belgium: 'We the Jews', Arab deception, and Belgian ‘anti-Zionists’

Edouard Brainis writes @ Times of Israel - a well researched and interesting article:

Gwenaëlle Grovonius

[...]  In Belgium we have quite a large Muslim population (7 %), mostly from Morocco and Turkey, with large Muslim population centres in Brussels (31 %), Antwerpen (18.8 %), Liège (17.7 %), and Charleroi (16.3 %). In some municipalities of Brussels, Muslim population peaks at very high values: Molenbeek (41.2 %), Saint-Josse (45 %). In recent years, this Muslim population has become increasingly religious and radical under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood (which put down strong roots in Belgium) and Saudi-style Salafism. Of course many Muslims are very nice people, but still the proportions are becoming alarming. As studies in Europe have shown, anti-Semitic attitudes are particularly strong among believing and practising Muslims and correlate well with authoritarian, fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. In particular within Muslims of Moroccan and Turkish decent, it was found that Islamic fundamentalism is widespread: ‘Two-thirds of the Muslims interviewed said that religious rules are more important to them than the laws of the country in which they live. Three quarters said that there is only one legitimate interpretation of the Koran. Almost 60 percent of the Muslim respondents reject homosexuals as friends; 45 percent think that Jews cannot be trusted; and an equally large group believes that the West is out to destroy Islam’.  The same pattern was also found in a study on Belgian youth, corroborating the fact that many young Muslims have strongly negative views on Jews and homosexuals.

No need to elaborate much further to understand that hatred of Israel is even more widespread than global anti-Semitism and Islamic radicalism. In this context, any politician who relies on Muslim votes – be it for his own career or the success of his party – better displays offensively anti-Israel feelings. That is the playbook. Morals and politics are two very different things; you do not need to explain that to the most evil people on Earth, we the Jews get the message. We understand it very well and are not offended. Are we?

When the ‘burst pipe’ slur came out, I have been very much impressed by the tactical cleverness of one young and promising socialist MP named Gwenaëlle Grovonius. She is only 38 years old and so high-spirited. Only one day after the ‘burst pipe’ story appeared for the first time on the Al Jazeera website, she was already standing in the Belgian parliament, accusing Israel of ‘water apartheid’ in front of all the Belgian MPs. ‘Water,’ she said, ‘is monopolised by the Israeli authorities’ and called Belgium for action. Her question to the Foreign Minister has been widely advertised on social media by herself and by the Socialist Party of Belgium (PS), see the screenshots here.  [...]

In the mean time, the notoriety of the young Belgian MP grew fast. Her video in the Belgian parliament was shared more than 400,000 times on Youtube! Success! What a slap in the face of Israel, really! Well done! The Jew-hating community was absolutely delighted. And we the Jews as well because we are always pleased when people talk about us, are we not? The next picture shows some examples of cheerful messages left by Ms Grovonius’ followers on her Facebook page.

Here are some transcripts:

• ‘She should made a plenary quenelle.’ (In reference to the inverted Nazi salute called ‘quenelle’, popularised by the French anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonné and previously executed by the far-right MP Laurent Louis in the Belgian parliament.)
• ‘How brave! One of the few to oppose the barbaric Zionist government.’
• ‘Do you seriously think that the Zionists will listen??? It’s like this since 60 years . . . They threaten, assassinate . . . The cancer of the world!!!’
• ‘Bravo, it is good to denounce, but when a global coalition to fight the Zionists? Large Arab monarchies, where are you?’
• ‘Unfortunately Madam, our dear Prime Minister does not give a damn about the plight of Palestinians. He already does not care about the fate of the inhabitants of “his” own country. They all dance with the devil and are the stars of a world-scale puppet show. This masquerade lasts for years, Israhell the untouchable, Israhell the spoiled child. What Israhell wants, Israhell takes it. After that, our leaders are surprised that people have hatred towards them. They are accomplices of an executioner suffering from the Stockholm syndrome. Hitler has some concurrency.’
• ‘Israel is the most racist state in the world.’
• ‘Only the Israhellian Zionists dare turning off the water to Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. Can you imagine that the Masonic West presents this wicked entity as a humanist democracy that enlightens the world with its blessings and its light . . . How do they dare to say such nonsense without reddening and be overcome by shame.’
• ‘She is not afraid of the devil.’
• ‘ — It’s easy, they [Edit: the politicians] are afraid of the devil. — They rather fear the Jewish government that seems to have a great influence in the world . . . ’
• ‘The Palestinian people has the right to live in its land as a citizen but the Israeli government is doing everything to destroy their lives by bombardments, kidnapping of children, blockade, waters cut. It is not fair in 2016. Kudos to you for your courage. You will be Prime Minister soon.’
• ‘This stance can be dangerous as we all know, respect your courage.’
• ‘How brave! We must stop the exploitation of diamonds by Zionists Outre-Quievrain.’ (In this context, Outre-Quievrain means ‘in Belgium’. The city of Antwerpen is know for its diamond industry of which the Jewish community of Antwerpen historically controlled a large part, even though it is now mostly controlled by Indians.)
• ‘Congratulations and thank you for having denounced that many men are not able to do. The goal of Israel is clear. This country, supposedly the best ‘democracy’ in the world, wants to exterminate Palestinians by all means. Garbage settlers!!!’
• ‘I am sad for my Palestinian brothers and angry. Not only are they deprived of their land . . . and now this. Hitler has not served as a showcase, far from it.’

These very amiable comments – and many others – decorated Ms Grovonius’ Facebook page for more than four days until a complaint was produced by the Coordinating Committee of the Jewish Organisations of Belgium (CCOJB) and it took another two days (June 21) to the Socialist Party to remove MP Grovonius’ lies in the parliament from all its official communication media, including the MP’s Facebook page. The Socialist Party then published the following statement:

Following the outpouring of hateful, racist and anti-Semitic speech, we decided to remove all references on our site to the current issue of water cuts the West Bank. This does not affect our condemnation of colonisation and policies in the occupied territories by the Israeli Government, which does not respect international law. The PS Group advocates the solution to two mutually recognised states and strongly condemns all acts of violence. The issue of access to water in the West Bank is a critical issue, which, to reiterate, is at the centre of international concerns. In order to calmly examine it, away from hatred, racism and anti-Semitism, and on the basis of cross-referenced information, we have decided to remove all references to the topical issue of water cuts in the West Bank.

If the aim of this statement was to appease Belgian Jews, I am afraid the Socialist Party missed the point. One cannot deplore ‘hateful, racist and anti-Semitic speech’ in one sentence and use deleterious language such as ‘colonisation’, ‘occupied territories’, and  ‘does not respect international law’ in the next one. It looks like an oxymoron. But this is not that important and we the Jews cannot care less about purposely misleading words, can we? No, the most remarkable thing in this statement is that it does not condemn the obsessive anti-Israel attitude of MP Grovonius . . . and actually ostensibly backs it by pretending that water cuts in Judea-Samaria is a ‘topical issue’ for them and even an issue ‘at the centre of international concerns’. We the Jews are delighted to hear that minor water management problems in Samaria (as painful they can be to Arab and Jewish inhabitants alike) are as central and topical to Socialist Party as the endless war in Syria, the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe, the war in Ukraine, the Russian menace, the political purges in Turkey, nuclear Iran, or even the rise of the far-right in Europe and the more and more likely collapse of the EU project. And what about the permanent violation of basic human rights in Eritrea? We are their favourites and we cherish that.

We do understand why Israel is so topical and central: the popularity of MP Gwenaëlle Grovonius’ Facebook page grew by 56.2 % in a single week . . . thanks to us the Jews.

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