“When you send your kids to school and you know that the threat of a terrorist attack is possible and probable, you are grateful for the armed soldiers,’’ declared Belgian MP Michael Freilich in a speech to the parliament last week as he proposed a bill that would ensure that Jewish sites such as synagogues, schools and Jewish institutions receive the same level of protection as other sensitive Belgian sites.
His proposal, which is due to be voted in February, comes after the Belgian government decided earlier this year that the security and protection tasks of the army would be taken over by the police.
The soldiers provide a “strong deterrent effect. If we replace them, please ensure it is done in a good way with proper funding and weapons,” said Freilich who is the first Orthodox Jew to seat in the Belgian parliament and a member of the opposition Flemish N-VA party (New Flemish Alliance).
He asked parliament to “please ensure that these people, these parents, these children” who have to live in a high risk area are “not left out in the cold.”
Currently, the general threat level in Belgium is at 2 while certain specific locations are at 3, which is the case for a number of embassies, the nuclear installations and the Jewish community. Level 3 means that the threat is “serious” and a terrorist act is even described as “possible and likely”.
Belgian soldiers were first posted to guard Jewish institutions in May 2014 after an Islamist murdered four people in a terrorist shooting at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels.