The Israeli Embassy in Brussels said, “This is how anti-Semitism is spread.”

The choice of a picture of an ultra-Orthodox Jew wearing a mask to illustrate an article about the global Covid-19 death toll sparked ire from Israel’s Ambassador to Belgium Emmanuel Nahshon.

The ambassador accused The Brussels Times, an English-language news outlet published in Belgium, of anti-Semitism, daily Israel Hayom reported.

“Global death toll tops 1.1 million. Why did you put a picture of an Orthodox Jew as illustration of your report? … it’s unnecessary and unpleasant,” Nahshon wrote in a Twitter post.

Nahshon, who has been fighting expressions of anti-Semitism in Belgium, was outraged over the choice of image.  He asked the news outlet to choose another picture. The Israeli Embassy in Brussels said, “This is how anti-Semitism is spread.”

The picture, which came from the Belgian news agency Belga together with the article, was later removed and replaced by one more related to the topic. Several other Belgian media outlets also published the controversial picture and removed it.