Three Jewish students wearing Israeli flags on their shoulders were attacked by the protesters, including the president of the Union of Jewish Students in Belgium (UEJB), Gad Deshayes, who was beaten and insulted.

Pro-Palestinian protesters shouted antisemitic slogans like ”Zionists fascists” and “He’s a dirty Jew, he must be destroyed.”

 

Brussels Free University (ULB) said it will lodge a complaint over violence which occurred Tuesday evening during the  occupation of a campus building by pro-Palestinian protesters. 

Three Jewish students wearing Israeli flags were attacked by the protesters, including the president of the Union of Jewish Students in Belgium (UEJB), Gad Deshayes, who was beaten and insulted.

By occupying the building, which they renamed after a Palestiian terrorist, the demonstrators intended to denounce “the ongoing genocide in Gaza” and called on the university to break off all collaboration with Israeli universities and companies “that participate in the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people”.  They shouted antisemitic slogans like ”Zionists fascists” and “He’s a dirty Jew, he must be destroyed.”

University Rector Annemie Schaus told Belgian television that ”the security service intervened immediately and calm has been restored. But complaints will be lodged because there were acts of violence, particularly against the president of the Union of Jewish Students of Belgium.” ”I cannot tolerate this,” she stressed.

She pointed  out that these actions were neither announced nor authorized, but that ULB ”respects the freedom of demonstration and the concerns of these young people”, without tolerating violent outbursts.

She said that dialogue and negotiations are continuing between the university and the demonstrators but no  evacuation is envisaged.

The ULB is also examining its agreements with certain Israeli universities. “Some of them are not at all questionable, and only one has been suspended”, said the Rector.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander  De Croo reacted to what is happening in the universities by saying that “this protest is understandable. ” “If I were their age, I’d probably be with them. It’s normal that there should be a voice of protest and a demand for dialogue in a complex conflict that shows an inability at international level to stop it.”