The head of the Jewish community in Belgium has called on the Belgian government to share the Jewish community’s financial burden of securing Jewish sites in the country, in the wake of the May 24 attack against the Brussels Jewish Museum in which four people were killed.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels with World Jewish Congress (WJC) Ronald Lauder, Maurice Sosnowski, president of CCOJB, the umbrella group of Belgian Jewish organisations, said that until now the Jewish community was supporting alone the cost of reinforced security measures around Jewish schools, synagogues and other places.
‘’In France, Germany or the UK the state is supporting this financial burden,’’ Sosnowski stressed as he and Lauder were due to meet Monday afternoon with Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and Interior Minister Joelle Milquet.
Sosnowski also insisted on the need to fight cyber hate on the internet and to promote education on the Shoah.
Ronald Lauder, who is leading in the Belgian capital a ‘’solidarity mission’’ with 36 representatives of Jewish communities in the world, said he was ‘’very encouraged’’ by the Belgian government’s reaction to the attack at the museum. ‘’Belgium has the opportunity to make things happen,’’ he said. ‘’Security forces today in Europe must be made stronger,'' he said,referring to the radicalization of Europeans who, like the arrested Frenchamn suspect Mehdi Nemmouche, spread their hate after returning from Syria. ‘’They want to kill and are ready to die,’’ he said, emphasizing the need of a European-wide effort to fight this radicalization.
He deplored that while Nemmouche was on a list of suspected terrorists in Germany, the information was no relayed to Belgium.
Responding a question about the link between the Mideast conflict and anti-Semitism, Lauder responded with a question : ‘’Will anti-Semitism disappear if there is a peace between Israel and the Palestinians ?’’. ‘’No,’’ he said. ‘’Anti-Zionism and anti-Israel are very close to anti-Semitism.’’