Belgian Jews Cheer Freezing Of Aid To Palestinian School
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — Belgian Jewish groups welcomed the decision by their country’s foreign ministry to freeze $3.8 million in funding for Palestinian schools following the renaming of a recipient institution for a terrorist who killed Jewish civilians.
Tuesday’s move, which the Forum of Jewish Organizations of Belgium’s Flemish Region said was “the right thing to do,” was announced in a government statement that was unusual for the seniority of the undersigned: federal vice prime ministers Didier Reynders and Alexander De Croo.
“Belgium has suspended two ongoing projects…of construction of Palestinian schools,” the statement read. “The Belgian government unequivocally condemns any glorification of a terrorist attack. Belgium will not allow itself to be associated in any manner to the names of terrorists.”
The reaction, which is unusually harsh compared to the Belgian foreign ministry’s handling in the past of complaints about misuse of aid funds by the Palestinian Authority, followed the renaming sometime after 2013 of a school built in Hebron with Belgian money. Originally called Beit Awwa Elementary School for Girls at the time of its inauguration in 2013, it was renamed for Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestinian terrorist who in 1978 killed with 12 accomplices 38 civilians, including 13 children.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
