BRUSSELS (AP) — The number of anti-Semitic acts registered in Belgium has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, according to the latest statistics released Thursday by the independent public body fighting discrimination. .
Unia said it received 91 reports related to the conflict between Israel and Hamas between October 7 and December 7 last year, compared to 57 in all of 2022. Ta. Most of the reports were of statements and actions deemed anti-Semitic, including examples of the Holocaust. rejection. In 66 cases, the target person’s Jewish origin was explicitly mentioned.
Most of the incidents involved hate messages, more than half of which were online, although some comments were made in public spaces. The newspaper said Unia was cooperating with the public prosecutor’s office and Belgian police in nine cases of assault and damage.
The report cites instances of beatings, graffiti, and the desecration of dozens of graves in the Jewish section of a cemetery near the city of Charleroi.
As a comparison, Unia said that in 2022, it received four to five reports per month related to anti-Semitism, for a total of 57 reports.
“We can therefore say that since October 7, 2023, there has been a clear increase in reports of anti-Semitism,” Unia said in the report.
Unia also said that between October 7 and December 7, it had received eight reports of discrimination and hate speech related to the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim beliefs of the targeted people.
Reports of anti-Semitic acts and comments have increased in many European countries since the outbreak of war. According to the World Jewish Congress, Belgium’s Jewish population is approximately 29,000. Most of the Jewish community in the capital Brussels is secular, but the port city of Antwerp has a large ultra-Orthodox population and is home to Europe’s largest Hasidic community.
The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 25,400 people have been killed in the enclave and six more have died since an October 7 attack by Gazan militants in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. It was announced that 3,000 people were injured.
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