Anti-Semitism Levels in Belgium Highest Since 2009

Anti-racism volunteers registered 80 anti-Semitic throughout Belgium in 2012, a 23 percent increase since 2011.

Ha’aratz
August 18, 2013

A memorial plaque stained with anti-Semitic vandalism in Mazowieckie, Poland, March 19, 2012.
A memorial plaque stained with anti-Semitic vandalism in Mazowieckie, Poland, March 19, 2012.

The number of anti-Semitic attacks reported last year in Belgium is the highest figure recorded there since 2009, according to an annual report.

Anti-racism volunteers registered 80 anti-Semitic throughout Belgium in 2012, according to a report released this month by the Antisemitsm.Be watchdog group. The figure represents a 23 percent increase since 2011.

The number is the highest recorded by the group since 2000 with the exception of the 100-odd attacks documented in Belgium in 2009, when an Israeli military campaign against Hamas triggered a massive leap in anti-Semitic attacks worldwide.

The authors of the report wrote that last year’s 80 reported incidents constitute a 34 percent increase from the per annum average from the past 12 years.

The increase, the authors wrote, owes to a noticeable spike in attacks after the murder of four Jews by a Muslim extremist in Toulouse, France, in March 2012.

Read More