“We are witnessing a paradigm shift in Europe” as the radical right draws closer to the Jewish state, said Flemish lawmaker Sam van Rooy.
By Akiva Van Koningsveld, JNS
The Dec. 9 meeting between Geert Wilders—the leader of the Netherlands’ Freedom Party, which triumphed in last year’s Dutch elections—and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem marked a watershed moment for relations between the European far right and the government of the Jewish state.
Ending an unofficial government boycott that some sources in Jerusalem claimed had been in place since Wilders was first elected on his anti-Islam platform in 2006, the firebrand European politician, who has repeatedly stated that “Jordan is Palestine,” was also received by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Cabinet ministers and Knesset members.
Sam van Rooy, a member of Belgium’s Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang (“Flemish Interest”) Party who was elected to the country’s Chamber of Representatives in June, once described Wilders as his “first teacher,” having worked for him in the Netherlands as a policy director before returning to Belgium in 2012 to pursue a political career.
Established in 2004 as a Flemish separatist party seeking to deport immigrants opposed to Western values, much of Belgium’s Jewish establishment has maintained a boycott of Flemish Interest due to the stigma of Nazi collaboration associated with Flemish nationalism.
Michael Freilich, a lawmaker for the centrist New Flemish Alliance who made history in 2019 by becoming the first Orthodox Jewish lawmaker elected to the Chamber of Representatives, earlier this year claimed that Flemish Interest was seeking political gain by falsely claiming that the Antwerp Jewish community feels threatened by Islamist terrorism.
Freilich also noted Flemish Interest’s failure to distance itself from Dries Van Langenhove, who was elected in 2019 as an “independent member” of its faction and was recently convicted of anti-Jewish hate speech.
Yet following Van Langenhove’s 2023 departure from politics, Henri Rosenberg, a professor in Jewish law and a prominent member of the Jewish community, urged fellow Jews to embrace Flemish Interest.
His son, real estate mogul David Rosenberg, in October became the first Orthodox Jew to run in an election on behalf of the right-wing party.
During the week of Wilders’ trip to Israel, JNS sat down with Van Rooy, who traveled to the Jewish state on a separate solidarity visit, for a wide-ranging conversation about the rise of Europe’s far right, the relations between Jerusalem and Brussels, Islamist antisemitism and how the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre has affected the most recent Belgium elections.
The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Over the past week, you have toured all over the Jewish state—from southern Israel to the hills of Samaria—in your first visit since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. What is your impression of the country?
Van Rooy: When visiting Israel, particularly since the Oct. 7 massacre, you are left with many impressions. Israel is obviously a diverse country with many different aspects. I naturally experienced many negative emotions. I visited Kibbutz Be’eri for two hours—and when you’re there for two hours, you’ve seen everything—as well as the Nova festival site.
That was a very emotional, very tough day. However, though it may sound strange, I left southern Israel with positive feelings, because I spoke to many people, often members of the Israel Defense Forces, often very young, who demonstrated incredible courage and determination.
I find that amazing, and I’m very hopeful. As I wrote in an Instagram post following the visit: Israel will emerge stronger. I am convinced of that after being here for several days and speaking with those people.
My conclusion is that Israel is losing the propaganda war, particularly in the West and in Europe. Yet I prefer this over the alternative: winning the propaganda war but losing on the battlefield. My visit was intended to help Israel win the propaganda war. That is why I am here now.
Q: Earlier this year, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli said that Belgium is among “the worst countries in Europe” in terms of their attitude toward Israel. Is his assessment correct, and what is the reason for this attitude?
A: Unfortunately, yes. The previous government, which consisted mainly of left-wing to far-left parties, incited by a growing bloc of communist opposition parties, included some ministers—Petra De Sutter, Caroline Gennez—whose anti-Israel stances were clearly motivated by electoral considerations, as well as what I believe is a form of latent antisemitism.
I really can’t explain it any other way. I always say that, in the wake of World War II, antisemitism was, fortunately, largely suppressed. But as Israel continues to show that it is strong, that it is here to stay and that the Jewish people will ensure that they will not be slaughtered a second time, the more people like that feel emboldened.
In a way, Israel—a 76-year-old miracle—has become the Jew among the nations, and that’s how the country has come to be treated. In Belgium, when the average politician, journalist or academic makes a claim about Israel or Zionism, it’s a lie. Period. If you’re looking for the truth, you should look elsewhere, but not to mainstream politics or media.
Q: How do other members of your party view your pro-Israel stance?
A: Obviously, not everyone in my party is as pro-Israel as me, just like there is a diversity of opinions on issues like energy, for example. And I’m not just pro-Israel; I’m very pro-Israel. There might be people who think this is excessive. There are also those who follow the mainstream idea of the two-state solution for Israel. However, I make sure that when the chips are down, during votes in parliament, we always side with Israel.
I grew up supporting Israel and the Jewish people. My grandmother lived in a Jewish neighborhood, and I often visited, so there was a lot of contact there. Later, my father became the principal of the Jewish school in Antwerp, the Yavne school, and when I visited him as a teenager—and I will never forget this—the guards had to go through my backpack; security cameras were everywhere. And that was in the ’90s. Already then, I realized that this should not be the reality for people to live in.
I was probably around 15 years old when I started studying the Middle East, Israel, Judaism, Islam. If you look at these issues rationally, you realize that, ideologically and historically, Judaism belongs with us and Islam doesn’t. Period. We need to protect Judaism and keep Islam out.
The Jewish people are the canary in the coal mine. If they no longer feel safe and leave, or consider leaving, we are next. If Israel and Jerusalem fall, Europe and Rome are next; that’s literally what the jihadis are saying.
Some people—not necessarily within my party—argue that Palestinian refugees are now coming our way. It’s short-sighted, but some blame Israel for this because of Gaza. While I always try to explain the history, this is not always easy with people who are uninformed and don’t connect to the subject—both in parliament debates and internally within my party.
Flemish Interest lawmaker Sam Van Rooy with Israel Defense Forces troops in southern Israel, December 2024. Credit: Courtesy.
Q: According to the Belgium magazine Doorbraak, the Israeli embassy in Belgium last year refused to invite Flemish Interest to a screening of the Israel Defense Forces’ footage of the Oct. 7 massacre and even declined a request to arrange a private screening for party officials. How are relations now?
A: The relations between Flemish Interest and the Israeli government are definitely improving. I am not certain whether those reports are accurate; as I understood it, the Oct. 7 screening could have been organized by the Reformist Movement, the French-speaking liberal party that maintains a cordon sanitaire and therefore excludes Flemish Interest from activities.
(The Reformist Movement and the Israeli embassy in Belgium did not respond by press time to JNS queries about the Nov. 22, 2023, screening of the Oct. 7 footage, which included lawmakers from all parties except Flemish Interest and the Marxist-socialist Workers’ Party of Belgium.)
More generally speaking, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in Europe, as demonstrated by parties like the Freedom Party in the Netherlands and Marine Le Pen [in France], as well as Orbán’s Hungary. In a post-war Europe that is increasingly removed from the horrors of WWII, a new generation has emerged in all those parties—including me, I’m 39 years old—and they are seeking out closer ties with Israel and its government.
The positive response I receive here from Israeli officials is heartwarming. There was talk of a meeting with Amichai Chikli during my visit here, but unfortunately, he was abroad most of the days of my trip. However, I believe a meeting with Chikli will definitely take place another time.
Q: In February of this year, Belgian Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt (Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats) confirmed to MPs that while Hamas is active in Belgium through multiple “shady organizations,” he believed nothing could be done. What is Flemish Interest’s plan?
A: We have been denounced as racists, fascists and Nazis for more than 45 years because we called for Belgium’s borders to be secured and closed as much as possible. Now, we are stuck with the result of these open-border policies. Even if the political will would exist, it has become very difficult to identify and deport terrorists and their supporters.
We have thousands of Hamas sympathizers in our country, maybe even tens of thousands. Over time, it becomes an unsolvable problem. Belgium now has a Muslim population of 800,000; the majority are Jew-haters.
Take, for example, someone like [Lebanese-Belgium Hezbollah activist] Dyab Abou Jahjah, a terrible terror sympathizer and a terrible antisemite. Yet he is invited to the public broadcaster to spread his vicious lies about Israel and the Jews without any interjection, while I, a democratically elected representative, would never be invited because I’m a Zionist.
What needs to be done is to track down these terror supporters and kick them out, or, if that is not possible, the least you should do is lock them up. Where there’s a will, there’s a way—but the political will is lacking.
Q: In the Netherlands, the antisemitic protests in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks have been widely credited as having helped Geert Wilders‘ Freedom Party triumph in last year’s election. In Belgium’s June 9 vote, Flemish Interest received more votes than in any previous election. How did Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre affect the latest election?
A: As a member of the opposition, I am willing to admit that the incoming government will be less anti-Israel than the previous one because the Green Party will no longer be part of it, and the [centrist]Reformist Movement and New Flemish Alliance will have the upper hand.
More than one factor can explain our great electoral gains. Oct. 7, but more than that, the aftermath in our streets—the antisemitic protests, the Muslim mobs chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “From the river to the sea” and the rallies on university campuses—did greatly upset our people.
In Belgium, you are free to walk around with a Palestinian flag—they can be seen on many houses—but you hardly see Israeli flags, and that’s not because of a lack of support, but because of the fears people have. By the way, the same is true for the hijab versus the Jewish yarmulke.
You don’t have to understand the Middle East or be pro-Israel in order to understand the simple question: What camp do you want to belong to? Do you want to associate with the civilized, decent people who hold silent vigils for the Jewish state with candles and flags, or do you want to side with those barbaric, screaming occupiers on university campuses?
In an ideal world, there would be no need for me to concern myself with what’s happening in Israel and the Middle East. I’d say, “I support Israel; I hope they win,” and put all my energy into what’s happening in Flanders. But this isn’t an ideal world, and because of their obsession with the only Jewish state—no Jews, no news—I am forced to respond to their libels.