Jewish and right-wing groups attack Belgian writer for sympathizing with Gaza | News

European Jewish and right-wing groups have poured out their anger on Belgian writer Herman Brasselmans, because of an article he wrote in which he expressed his anger at the large number of victims of the ongoing Israeli aggression against civilians. in Gaza stripexpressing his desire to stab Jews in revenge.

Although Brasselmans' article, published last Sunday in the Flemish magazine “Homo” as satirical, was met with strong condemnation from the European Jewish Association, which announced its intention to file a complaint.

The Belgian anti-discrimination organization “Unia” announced on Wednesday that it had filed a complaint after receiving “about 10 reports” from associations or citizens who expressed their shock after reading the article.

In a sarcastic manner and with harsh words, Brasselmans attacked the Israeli army and the Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu Which he attributes to the desire to “annihilate” the entire Arab world, even if it means causing a new world war.

By evoking the 10-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, the writer puts himself in the shoes of a Palestinian and imagines a scene in which his son screams when he sees his mother trapped under the rubble of a destroyed building.

“I feel so angry that I want to stick a sharp knife in the throat of every Jew I meet,” he wrote in his article, adding, “Of course, we must always tell ourselves that not all Jews are murderous bastards.”

The European Jewish Association, headquartered in Brussels– What Brasselmans wrote “amounts to public incitement to the murder of Jews,” and the magazine “Homo”, which published the article, demanded “an apology and the immediate suspension of the writer from his work.”

While elected officials from the Flemish right accused the writer of “Anti-Semitism“These kinds of comments only fuel the anti-Jewish climate,” said the association's spokeswoman, Anne Salmon, adding that the Jewish community, including those in Belgium, has been living in “a climate of insecurity since October 7.”

For his part, Brasselmans, 66, denied accusations of anti-Semitism or incitement to murder or hatred. He said on his Instagram account, “I am against all forms of violence. Let us dare to exaggerate, to mock, and even to ridicule.” The management of the magazine “Homo” defended him, stressing that what he wrote was “a satirical column, not a newspaper article or an interview.”

Herman Brasselmans is one of the most widely read writers in northern Belgium, where Dutch is spoken, and has published an average of two novels a year for 40 years.