Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

‘It’s Palestine, Not Israel,’ Belgian Hotline Operator Tells Jewish Caller

An operator in Belgium’s federal hotline on the terrorist attacks in Brussels told a Jewish caller that Israel does not exist and is in fact called Palestine.

The call Thursday to the Belgian Interior Ministry’s hotline was recorded and the audio file posted on the website of Joods Actueel, a Belgian Jewish monthly.

In it, a man who presented himself as a volunteer for Antwerp’s Jewish Coordination Committee told the operator in Flemish that he was calling on behalf of two people who were injured in the March 22 attacks in Brussels and wish to be discharged as they are “being prepared to be transported to Israel.” The caller asked about the procedure for discharging them.

At least 32 people died in a series of suicide bombings last week at Zaventem Airport near Brussels and at a central metro station, which the Islamic State terrorist group said it planned and executed.

In the recording, the operator can be heard responding: “That’s actually… See… Back to Palestine.” The Jewish caller insisted: “Not Palestine, Israel,” prompting another correction by the operator, who retorted: “Yes, but that was before Palestine, of course.” He also said about Israel: “It’s called Palestine, sir.”

Asked for his first name, the operator said it was Zakharia but refused to state his last name.

Challenged over his remarks over Israel, the operator told the caller: “I know the Jews went to there, that Palestine received them and that there is a war between Israel and Palestine, of course. And the occupation… that’s what’s on the news of course.” Asked whether he would be able to help with the patients’ discharge regardless, the operator replied: “Yes, of course.”

Michael Freilich, the editor-in-chief of Joods Actueel, said it “defies imagination” that a Belgian state employee would display the anti-Israel behavior that is commonplace in Arab countries. He also called for punishing the operator instead of issuing the “standard apology.”

A spokesperson for the crisis center told Joods Actueel it deeply deplores the “isolated case” and will take “necessary actions” against the staffer in question, which the center said was not a civil servant but a call center employee.

The recording’s release follows at least four recorded cases in which people who either spoke Arabic or wore Muslim traditional garb, destroyed, concealed or removed Israeli flags at an impromptu memorial space set up for the attacks’victims at Place de la Bourse in Brussels. It features many flags, including those of Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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.