Wiesenthal Centre to Belgian Interior Minister: “Stoning of Antwerp Jewish School Bus Marks a New Threshold in Spiraling Anti-Semitic Violence”

June 17, 2014

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE
Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401
E-mail: csweurope@gmail.com

“Even the unthinkable scenario of a Judenrein (Jew-free) Antwerp would not stop an eventual Jihadist threat to general Belgian society.”



In a letter to Belgian Interior Minister, Joëlle Milquet, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, lamented “a new threshold in the spiraling violence against the Jews of Belgium. From the Brussels Jewish Museum to Flemish Antwerp, with the stoning of a Jewish school bus."

Samuels noted, “Antwerp – a centuries old, orthodox Jewish centre at the heart of the global diamond industry – is now colloquially known as “Gaza.” Talk there is rampant in the Pelikaanstraat gem-stores of an exodus from Belgium."

The letter argued, “Mohammed Merah (the Toulouse Jewish school assassin) and Mehdi Nemmouche (the Brussels Jewish Museum murderer) have apparently had a Jihadist effect on some sectors of Muslim youth in Belgium and France."

The Centre viewed “the pogrom of the Antwerp Hayder school bus as the latest example of a perception of impunity," adding, "The teenage perpetrators must be detained before their possible departure for the killing fields of Syria. Their school must be held responsible and Jewish school buses must be guarded just as the schools themselves."

“Even the unthinkable scenario of a Judenrein (Jew-free) Antwerp would not stop an eventual Jihadist threat to general Belgian society," concluded Samuels.

For further information please contact Dr. Shimon Samuels on 00(33)609770158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 members. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament.