Wiesenthal Centre to Belgian Justice Minister: “We are Appalled at Court Endorsement of Antisemitism by Default”

June 10, 2019

“After five years of procrastination, its ruling goes way beyond ‘justice delayed, justice denied!’’’
 
Paris
 
In a letter to Belgian Minister of Security and Interior, Pieter de Crem, Simon Wiesenthal Director for International Relations, Drt. Shimon Samuels, declared that the Centre’s membership was “appalled at a Belgian Court endorsement of antisemitism by default.”
 
The letter recalled how, “in July 2014, a Turkish-run restaurant in Sint-Niklaas (Saint-Nicolas), Flanders, placed a notice in French stating, ‘Entry Permitted to Dogs, but to Zionists never!’”, noting that, “added in Turkish, the message was clearer: ‘In this business, we accept dogs, but Jews never!’, based on the Nazi German notices in parks: ‘Entry for dogs = for Jews forbidden!’”
 
Samuels argued that, “A lawsuit against the perpetrator was apparently immobilized in the court for almost five years,” continuing, “Now we witness the 'coup de grace', as tribunal spokesperson, Catherine Colligan, admitted: ‘the case is closed without any chance of follow-up.’”
 
The Centre claimed, “this was a hate-crime against the Belgian Jewish community and Belgium itself. It represents an encouragement to Islamists across Europe that antisemitic threats are not subject to legal measures - a devastating precedent.”
 
Mr. Minister, “We urge you to investigate a court that seems to have twisted justice into an endorsement of antisemitism by default. After five years of procrastination, its ruling goes way beyond ‘justice delayed, justice denied!’,” concluded Samuels.
 
For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at +33 147 237 637, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.
 
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).