Regarding Belgians’ perceptions of the war between Israel and Hamas, the survey shows that more than a third (35%) of those polled felt that “the Jews are doing to the Palestinians what the Germans did to them.

The resurgence of anti-Semitic acts in Belgium and the anti-Israel climate since October 7th is driving more and more Jews to leave the country, mainly to settle in Israel or the USA.

Brussels is the most antisemitic region of Belgium. 22% of Brussels residents, or almost one in four, express antipathy towards Jews, according to a new survey conducted by Ipsos for the Jonathas Institute.

The survey goes beyond Brussels region. This antipathy was felt by 9% of respondents in two Wallonia and 16% in Flanders.

It was conducted among 1,000 people between May 8 and 12 “using the same panel and methodology as for the political polls.”

On the national level, 14% of Belgians felt and displayed antipathy towards the Jewish community. By way of comparison, 32% of those polled expressed antipathy towards Muslims, 29% towards Roma, 22% towards Turks. Conversely, one in four said they felt sympathy for the Jewish community, and 19% for the Muslim community.

This rejection of the Jewish community is much more marked in Belgium than in France, which was the subject of the same survey and where 6% of respondents expressed antipathy towards Jews.

“These markers of primary anti-Semitism are prevalent in all sectors of Belgian society and are over-represented on the extreme left, the extreme right and among Muslims”, according to the Jonathas Institute which noted ‘’a general ignorance of Judaism and anti-Semitism in Belgium.”

60% of Muslims surveyed believe that “Jews do to Palestinians what Germans do to them”.

The survey also shows that one in five of those polled (and one in three Muslims) think that “Jews are responsible for the death of Christ”; 28% (half of those polled from the extreme right and 43% of Muslims) think that “Jews are not really people like the others”; 38% (almost one in two among Muslims) think that “Jews are too present in finance”, etc.; almost one in three Muslims think that “Jews are not really people like the others”. Nearly one in 4 respondents (39% among Muslims and on the far right) think that “Jews are a race that does not want to assimilate in Belgium”.

Regarding Belgians’ perceptions of the war between Israel and Hamas, the survey shows that more than a third (35%) of those polled felt that “the Jews are doing to the Palestinians what the Germans did to them. Sixty percent of Muslims think so, half of those on the far left and 47% in Brussels.”

While 11% of those polled in Brussels said they had sympathy for Hamas.

Historian Joël Kotek, who is president of the Institut Jonathas, commented that  “since the Shoah, people no longer dare to say they are anti-Semitic, but if you ask them about anti-Semitic prejudices, you realize that the markers are very high”. In his opinion, “in proportion to their numbers, Jews are the main victims of racist violence in Belgium. I’m talking about symbolic and physical violence, not discrimination.”

The resurgence of anti-Semitic acts in Belgium since October 7th is driving more and more Jews in Belgium to leave the country, mainly to settle in Israel or the USA. “This mechanism was set in motion following the second Intifada in September 2000 and the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014, but we can see that the nature of anti-Semitism has changed since October 7,’’ declared Joël Rubinfeld, president of the Belgian League against Anti-Semitism.