This list is led by Dyab Abou Jahjah, a controversial activist who is said to have close links with Hezbollah and is known for his antisemitic and anti-Zionist views.

The presentation of the ‘’VIVA Palestina’’ list highlights the increasingly anti-Israel sentiment in Belgium which has spread to several political parties since October 7.

Like in other EU member states, Belgian citizens will vote to elect the members of the European Parliament for a new 5-year term. But at the same time they will also vote to elect their federal and regional parliaments.

In addition to the traditional political parties from the far right to the far left, voters in Brussels capital region will now have a new option: to vote for a new list which was submitted for the regional parliament: ‘’VIVA Palestina.’’

This list will be led by its founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah, a controversial activist who is said to have close links with Hezbollah and is known for his antisemitic and anti-Zionist views. Born in Lebanon in 1971, Jahjiah, a Shiite, is a descendant of Palestinian refugees. He came to Belgium in the early 1990s, acquired Belgian citizenship in 1996 after quickly divorcing a Belgian woman and founded the ‘’European Arab League.’’

Belgian daily newspaper La Libre published one of his quotes saying : “Whether Jews or non-Jews, we will always expel them from our land.”

The new list’s programme is pushing for recognition of the ‘’genocide” in Gaza and opposes “the genocidal and colonial apartheid regime in Palestine.” ‘’The apartheid regime in Palestine should be eliminated and subjected to strict sanctions and boycott measures,’’ it says.

Abou Jahjah has also urged the introduction of Sharia law in Belgium – as a “thought experiment.’’ The core demand of VIVA Palestina: “Brussels, the heart of the EU, must become the center of support for the Palestinian cause.”

According to Belgian media reports, Jahjah’s candidacy was made possible by the support of MP Khadija Zamouri, a politician from the Flemish Open VLD, which is the party of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

‘’This person has no place on an electoral list after his remarks. I’m flabbergasted by the trivialization of such thinking by part of the political class who feel they have no need to react,’’ said George-Louis Bouchez, president of the French-speaking MR liberal party about Jahjah.  He spoke of a ”serious political mistake” made by the Open-VLD MP.

The presentation of the ‘’VIVA Palestina’’ list highlights the increasingly anti-Israel sentiment in Belgium which has spread to several political parties since October 7.

An Israeli minister recently stated that Belgium and Spain ‘’are the worst’’ in Europe regarding their attitude on Israel.

This anti-Israel position adopted by the Belgian government has also spread to other political parties, with several government ministers making anti-Israel statements. And it has a direct impact on the country’s Jewish community of around 35,000 members.

Earlier this week, the chairmen of the country’s two main Jewish umbrella organisations, the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations (CCOJB) in Brussels and the Forum of Jewish Organisations (FJO) in Antwerp, addressed a joint letter to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo asking him ‘Don’t abandon your Jewish community.’’   .

According to Yves Oschinsky and Regina Sluszny, Belgium’s Jews are currently “deeply worried about their own safety, as they are experiencing great hostility”.

Belgian politics and De Croo personally are blamed  for this. “Since you traveled to the Middle East with your Spanish colleague (Pedro Sánchez), your choice of words has changed to a strong hostility towards Israel, with Belgium leading the way in Europe with its radical criticism of the Israeli response (to the Hamas attack).”

The letter added: ‘’It is the “import of the conflict that puts us in direct danger and worries us to the highest degree.”

The two community leaders called on the Belgian ptemier to take a more balanced stance in the Middle East conflict. There is still “hope that there will be a de-escalation of the current extreme polarization in Belgium.” But, he warned the prime minister: “By abandoning Israel, you are also abandoning your Jewish community.”

A leading Jewish rabbi welcomed the letter. ‘’We fully stand beside every word that was said in the letter,’’ said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the Euroepan Jewish Association (EJA), which represents hundreds of Jewish communities on the Continent. ‘’The open letter is much more than a cry for help and support. It represents a depth gauge of how deep the level of antizionism and antisemitism synk to in Belgium,’’ he said.

The same rabbi recently deplored that Europe’s policies to combat antisemitism ‘’have failed the ‘real world’ test, in a reference to the growing number of antisemitic incidents in several European countries since the war between Israel and Hamas started.