Following the wave of anti-Israel and antisemitic actions on U.S. campuses, demonstrations have also erupted in universities in Europe, in France, Ireland, the UK and Belgium where Jewish students are expressing fear for being attacked by the demonstrators who are occupying university halls.
In Belgium, protesters at two universities, in Ghent and Leuven, have called on the universities to cut all ties with Israeli universities and threatened to continue their occupation of the campus. But the unversity authorities made it clear that they will not follow the request of some of the students to end collaboration with Israeli institutions.
Asked about her position on these demonstrations for Gaza, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said she is in favor of this type of expression. “Wherever civil society can indicate that it can take possession of the world’s most urgent debates, it should do so. Students have a voice to make heard, of course. But it must be peaceful,” she said in an interview with the Belgian public radio RTBF. “What I regret, however, is when the hatred that has led to so much violence over there is exported to the other side of the planet”.
In her opinion, these demonstrations can even influence politics. ‘’It puts pressure on public authorities, it pushes them to be more courageous. I’m sure that Joe Biden now intends to settle the conflict differently, so it may influence his policy. I think that’s great, but it has to be done with respect for others,” the minister added.
During the interview, she was asked by a 21-year-old political science student of Arab origin at Brussels University. Wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh over her shoulders, she made no secret of her support for the Palestinians. “The Palestinian question is often conditioned by what happened on October 7. To avoid falling into that trap, I’m going to talk about something that has been going on for much longer,’’ she said. She mentioned the fact that Lahbib’s political party, the Liberal MRis the only French-speaking party in Belgium ‘’that doesn’t want to ban imports of products from illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights.’’
The Foreign Minister justifies this position on the grounds of the European single market. “Everything to do with foreign trade really depends on the European Commission. We are the champions of differentiation, we indicate (these products) and we tax them more heavily,” she said. Belgium cannot introduce a ban “on its own,’’ she said.
“If I prohibit these products from arriving at the port of Antwerp, for example, they will arrive at the port of Rotterdam, in Marseille. It’s just moving the market. The aim of any sanction is to punish the target country, not to punish ourselves,” she continued.
“We’re working with other partners at the moment, and we’re leading the way in terms of sanctions. I can tell you that we were the most vocal, the first to call for sanctions against violent settlers, we took them in a forward-thinking way, even though they could have come from elsewhere.”