Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Belgium Far Right Rally Blasts Jews

Belgian extreme-right and extreme-left activists participated in a demonstration in Antwerp where some participants reportedly called for Jews to be gassed.

Approximately 150 demonstrators gathered Sunday afternoon outside the Provinciehuis, a concert hall in the Flemish capital, to protest the Israel Defense Forces Orchestra’s performance there, according to the online edition of the Flemish-Jewish magazine Joods Actueel.

Several demonstrators can be heard chanting “Hamas, Hamas, all Jews to the gas” in recordings from the demonstration, which Joods Actueel posted on its news website. They will be filed to police along with an official complaint over hate speech, the paper reported.

One wing of the demonstration comprised members of center-left and extreme-left movements, including Fouad Ahidar, a Brussels alderman and member of the Socialist party SP-A. One of the protesters there carried a sign reading: “Tzahal, you are stinking murders (sic).”

Another wing of the demonstration comprised activists from the extreme right, including Eddy Hermy, an activist of the N-SA movement, Joods Actueel reported. He has been twice convicted of racist speech. His articles are regularly published on the neo-Nazi website solidarisme.be.

A commentary by Joods Actueel on the incident read: “We are not surprised by this. When it comes to anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments, we find these groups together.”

The IDF orchestra’s tour in the Netherlands and Belgium began two days before Israel launched operation Pillar of Defense against Hamas on Nov. 14.

Several European cities, including The Hague and Brussels, have seen protests against the IDF offensive against Hamas, which Israel launched in response to the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.