27 mai 2008 · EJP

A former Belgian Defense Minister sparked the ire of the Jewish community after he reportedly compared Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians to the fate of the Jews during World War II.

In a speech last Saturday at a pro-Palestinian gathering in Nivelles, near Brussels, André Flahaut, a Socialist MP and city councillor, compared Israel to a Nazi state, according to CCOJB, the umbrella representative group of Belgian Jewish organizations.

He was quoted as saying: “Like any normal person, I am revolted when I see children suffering, when I see maltreated women, who are raped, when I see maltreated men and freedoms ridiculed. During the twelve years and half I was minister, I left no stone unturned so that the atrocities against the Jews during WWII be remembered and not forgotten. I also ask that one have the same commitment, the same determination to make that the voice of those who suffer today is heard and to avoid banalization. I am determined to fight against all exclusions, all nazisms, all fascisms wherever they are”.

In a statement, the “Union of Deported Jews in Belgium-Daughters and Sons of the Deportation”, urged Flahaut to publicly retract his comments.

Flahaut, who was Defense Minister in the former government of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, denied later that he made anti-Jewish comments.

He said the gathering on Saturday was organized by a group advocating dialogue between Israel and Palestine. When he arrived at the meeting, Flahaut was heckled by a Jewish representative who blamed him for his presence.

The former minister added: “I answered that I am in favour of dialogue and that I have always been determined to fight all forms of violence, racism and extremism. My speech remained general and balanced. I never questioned any state”.

During the gathering, pseudo-Israeli soldiers wearing weapons staged a mock repression of Palestinians to illustrate what organizers called in their leaflets the “expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 when Israel was created”.

An Ecologist MP, Thérèse Snoy, denounced “pressure from certain Jewish groups” on the city's authorities to ban the demonstration.

© EJP