Tagged Belgium

Belgian editor defends publication of column saying Jews have ‘ugly noses’

"Being Jewish is not a religion, no God would give creatures such an ugly nose," Dimitri Verhulst wrote. (Screenshot from YouTube)
August 9, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — The editor of a prestigious Belgian daily defended an op-ed described as anti-Semitic, saying its critics were trying to silence criticism of Israel. The column, written by Dimitri Verhulst, was published July 27 in De Morgen and quickly drew outrage. It describes Jews in Israel as land… Read more »

Hundreds of Jews respond to John Kerry’s speech with West Bank solidarity tour

Joseph Waks, fourth from the right, poses with Jewish visitors and soldiers at the Oz Vegaon tent outpost in the West Bank, Jan. 2, 2017. (Courtesy of Avi Hyman Communications)
January 4, 2017 / Andrew Tobin, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) – About 200 Jews from around the world toured the West Bank in response to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent speech warning of the dangers of settlement expansion. The group, organized on short notice by Miami-based fashion designer Joseph Waks, visited Jewish communities and met… Read more »

Can Belgium protect its Jews? A community has its doubts

Amid reports of repeated security failures, many Belgian Jews feel their government is leaving them vulnerable. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
March 25, 2016 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

ANTWERP (JTA) – The hundreds of rifle-toting police and soldiers who patrol Isaac Michaeli’s neighborhood have done little to improve his sense of safety. “When the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, the soldiers might as well be cardboard cutouts,” he said. A jeweler in his… Read more »

Is EU discriminating against Israel by labeling settlement goods?

A demonstration in Madrid in support of Western Sahara's self-determination, Nov. 11, 2006. (Wikimedia Commons)
November 13, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — To Israel and many of its supporters, the new European Union regulations requiring separate labeling for settlement goods are discriminatory measures reminiscent of Europe’s long history of institutionalized anti-Semitism. In a harshly-worded statement Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that by ignoring other territorial disputes around the world, the EU… Read more »

A divided Belgium nears a belated consensus on Holocaust-era complicity
January 25, 2013 / Cnaan Lipshiz, JTA
Henry and Madeleine Cornet in their home near Brussels in the 1940s (Jan Maes)

As the sister of Belgium’s most powerful Nazi, Madeleine Cornet knew better than to inquire about the ethnicity of the three women she hired as housemaids in October 1942. Cornet did not want to further implicate herself by hearing what she already knew: Her new hires were Jews who… Read more »