Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo did not mention Israel in his address to the annual dinner of CCOJB, the umbrella group of Jewish organisations in Belgium, in response to the President of CCOJB Maurice Sosnowski who denounced ''unbalanced criticism of Israel'' and said he was ''proud to be a Zionist as it is the case for the overwhelming majority of Belgian Jews.''
However, Di Rupo delivered to the Jewish community a message of ‘’vigilance and firmness ‘’of the state against anti-Semitism.
''Around schools and synagogues, on public roads in general, recklessness is not always the case. Caution is still too often the rule in your life, in your activities. Revealing its Jewishness is sometimes taking a risk. This is unacceptable,’’ he declared.
'' 70 years after the Holocaust we cannot ignore this unfortunate fact. We need to identify the evil and take it to its root.''
'' We need to give strong responses out of our rule of law and our democratic values,’’ he said, stressing that the State and the law ‘’are there to guarantee our democratic values and protect you. We must remember that our laws prohibit and penalize anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination.''
The Prime Minister also reiterated the absolute necessity ''to teach about the Holocaust in our schools.''
'' This History is ours and we must assume it collectively . It is in Belgium, notably, that raids and deportations of Jews took place, Jews were forced to wear the yellow star, registers of Jews were opened and racial crimes were committed ,'' Di Rupo said.
In September 2012, the Prime Minister expressed the responsibility of the Belgian State in the deportation on Jews from Belgium to the death camps and present apologies from the Belgian authorities.
In his speech, CCOJB President Maurice Sosnowski regretted that many Belgian citizens, Holocaust survivors, are denied recognition of their disability caused by the persecution they suffered on the grounds that they were not Belgians in 1940.
He lamented that while the Prime Minister asked the Senate to consider the possibility of recognition of a status of racial deportee and orphan of the Holocaust for these people ‘’there has been no legsilative follow-up to the proposal.’’
He also noted that the latest polls show that our community ‘’is very concerned”.
‘’A specter is haunting Europe the specter of hate,'' Sosnowski said, noting the rise of far-right parties who seek to destroy Europe.''
" Mr. Prime Minister, do you find normal that Orthodox Jews in Antwerp are attacked, that in Brussels anyone who is wearing a distinctive mark such as a yarmulke or a Star of David dare not take the subway out of fear to be attacked ?,’’ he asked.