Eliane Tillieux, President of the Chamber, said she had submitted the request to the Chamber’s Conference of Presidents, which on Tuesday “did not reach a consensus regarding the screening of the film.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accused the Chamber of ‘’turning a blind eye on Hamas crimes which is tantamount to disregarding Israel’s right to defend itself against a terrorist organization that is worse than ISIS.’’
Georges-Louis Bouchez, President of the French-speaking MR Liberal party, who has been steadfast in his support of Israel, called the Chamber’s decision “incomprehensible and undignified,” saying that his party is organizing a screening of the footage for next week, open to all parliamentarians. He is also trying to have the Senate to screen the film.
The Belgian parliament has refused a request by Israel’s ambassador to Belgium to screen the video of the October 7th Hamas massacres.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen slammed the decision made public by the Belgian Chamber of Representatives’ President Eliane Tillieux and accused the Chamber of ‘’turning a blind eye on Hamas crimes which is tantamount to disregarding Israel’s right to defend itself against a terrorist organization that is worse than ISIS.’’
1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 in communities in southern Israel.
The 45-minute video has been screened to selected groups of journalists and politicians around the world, including in Brussels. A clip of the video has also be shown in the European Parliament last week during a conference organized with family members of the hostages detained in Gazan.
The gruesome images come from body-cam footage taken from Hamas terrorists, clips from security cameras and social media posts shot on the day of the attack.
The screenings are part of a public diplomacy effort to demonstrate why Israeli officials say they are determined to never again permit such an attack to take place.
Minister Cohen said the footage is “not a propaganda video, rather it is a film created from footage shot by the terrorists themselves, that shows their indiscriminate slaughter of Israeli civilians.” “Hamas is guilty of instigating the war, in which the State of Israel is defending its citizens and is standing at the forefront of the Western world in the face of murderous terrorism,’’ he added.
Eliane Tillieux said she had submitted the request to the Chamber’s Conference of Presidents, which on Tuesday “did not reach a consensus regarding the screening of the film.”
Israel’s ambassador to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, said she was “exploring other alternatives.“
Georges-Louis Bouchez, President of the French-speaking MR Liberal party, called the Chamber’s decision “incomprehensible and undignified,” saying that his party is organizing a screening of the footage for next week, open to all parliamentarians. He is also trying to have the Senate to screen the film.
Georges Dallemagne, MP for Les Engagés party, also criticized the Chamber decision. “I don’t understand the choice. This film deserves to be seen in Parliament, as do other documents”, he explains. “Other countries have already done so, or are about to. There’s a duty to see the real thing. If we don’t do it, others will do it for us, and maybe the parliamentarians who succeed us in 20 or 30 years’ time will wonder why we didn’t want to face reality.”
CCOJB, the umbrella organisation of Belgian Jewish organizations, condemns the decision to refuse the screening of the film. ”At a time when this film is being seen by members of various parliaments around the world, notably in France and the United States, Belgium’s refusal is outrageous,” it said.
In France, around a hundred members of the National Assembly attended Tuesday the screening of the film.