At a time when anti-Semitism is at record levels, a court decision to dismiss the complaint by the European Jewish Association will certainly be perceived as a very dangerous development by the Jewish community. Isn’t it showing that the Belgian legal system is simply not well prepared to handle cases of anti-Semitism properly ?
A legal complaint by the European Jewish Association (EJA) against Flemish author and columnist Herman Brusselmans following a column considered as antisemitic and inciting to hatred has been dismissed by the prosecutor as ‘’inadmissible.’’
A Court in the city of Ghent has postponed its decision until March 4.
According to the prosecutor, the EJA has ‘’no interest’’ in the complaint because, according to its statutes, it does not campaign against discrimination against Jews.
EJA’s lawyer Sven Mary said he will appeal the decision to the Ghent Chamber of Indictments, according to press reports.
EJA’s civil-party complaint to the investigating judge last August came on the basis of inciting hatred or violence against the Jewish community after Brusselmans wrote in a column in weekly Humo magazine : “I see an image of a weeping and screaming Palestinian little boy crying completely out of control for his mother lying under the rubble, and I imagine that the little boy is my own son Roman, and the mother my own friend Lena, and I become so enraged that I want to ram a pointed knife loose down the throat of every Jew I meet.”
The Brussels-based European Jewish Association called the passage “psychopathic.” “But according to the prosecutor’s office, EJA’s complaint has been dismissed on a technicality beause the organization’s bylaws do not specifically name its commitment against discrimination against Jews but only that it works to safeguard “Jewish interests.,” said Sven Mary who announced he will appeal the decision.
The purpose of the European Jewish Association, which represents hundreds of Jewish communities, across Europe, is implicitly but unquestionably the protection of Jewish interests, including the protection of the human rights of Jews and the fight against discrimination against Jews. ‘’The dismissal is ridiculous and mistaken,’’ says the Jewish organization.
“When we filed a case that is a clear case of anti-Semitism and incitement, we could never have imagined that a Jewish organization that fights daily against anti-Semitism and represents European Jews and stands up for their rights would be rejected because of a technical issue in our statutes, which explicitly refer to the protection of Jewish interests in Europe,’’ said EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin who promised to continue ‘’our struggle and pursue the cause with all available means.’’
He appealed to the new Belgian government to future-proof their legal system against such decisions. ”When hate speech, anti-Semitism and sedition become secondary to what is or is not in a plaintiff’s statutes, something is clearly very, very wrong.”
If the case is also dismissed on appeal next week, lawyer Sven Mary has no doubt that it will eventually end up at the Supreme Court. “This is about the precise interpretation of laws and then the Supreme Court has jurisdiction,” she said.
When someone files a complaint with civil charges, an investigating judge is required to investigate the case and a judicial inquiry is opened.
To ensure that not just anyone would file such a complaint, however, the parties are asked to pay a bail of 500 euros. At the conclusion of the investigation, the file ends up at the Council Chamber.
At a time when anti-Semitism is at record levels, a court decision to dismiss the case will certainly be perceived as a very dangerous development by the Jewish community. Isn’t it showing that the Belgian legal system is simply not well prepared to handle cases of anti-Semitism properly ?