In the controversial column published in Humo magazine, 66-year-old Herman Brusselmans wrote that the image of a Palestinian boy screaming for his mother lying under the rubble infuriates him so much that he wants to “ram a pointed knife down the throat of every Jew he encounters.”
”No matter how much we all may cherish freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, this is absolutely and categorically not the freedom that Mr. Brusselmans was exercising. Instead, he used the cover of both to preach hatred, incite murder, and be antisemitic,” says Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association which filed a complaint against the author.
A judicial investigation has been opened into a column written by Flemish author Herman Brusselmans in Humo weekly magazine in which he wrote that the image of a Palestinian boy screaming for his mother lying under the rubble infuriates him so much that he wants to “ram a pointed knife down the throat of every Jew he encounters.”
The public prosecutor of East Flanders in Ghent confirmed the investigation to Belgian news agency Belga.
The investigation is a result of a civil complaint, which obliges the examining magistrate to conduct a judicial investigation. The complaint was filed by the European Jewish Association (EJA), a Brussels-based federation of Jewish communities across Europe, which announced earlier this month that it was taking legal action against Brusselamns for incitement to hatred and violence.
It had previously been announced that the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office had launched an investigation, but because of the new complaint, a judicial inquiry has been set up. Thereby the investigating judge has more powers.
The EJA is cooperating in its complaint with the Forum of Jewish Organizations (FJO), Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID), the Israelite Congregation of Antwerp Shomre Hadass and the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism (LBCA).
Lawyer David Szafran, who is acting for EJA along with another lawyer, Sven Mary, confirmed that the complaint has been filed. “The investigation is now in the hands of the investigating judge, who will determine what to do. Previously, it was indeed an investigation following Unia’s complaint. Our complaint was formulated on the basis of incitement to hatred or violence, but I cannot give details about the content.”
Unia, an anti-discrimination public service in Belgium, filed a complaint because Brusselmans would have violated the anti-racism law with his column and incited hatred or violence against persons of Jewish origin. For now, Brusselmans would not yet have been questioned in the case.
‘Humo’ decided to take the column offline, saying it had “never intended to hurt the Jewish community.” Brusselmans himself announced that his words were meant “metaphorically” and that he did not want to incite “murder.”
At the end of the investigation, the file will go to the Council Chamber. It will then have to decide whether there are sufficient objections to bring the case before the correctional (criminal) court.
In an op-ed sent to the media, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association, wrote: ‘’No matter how much we all may cherish freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, this is absolutely and categorically not the freedom that Mr. Brusselmans was exercising. Instead, he used the cover of both to preach hatred, incite murder, and be antisemitic.’’
He added, ‘’Herman Brusselmans , trying to hide behind these freedoms, insults us all by using both the privilege and the responsibility of these freedoms in the most sickening, psychopathic and antisemitic way imaginable: by saying that he wants to: “Stick a knife in the throat of every Jew he comes across.”
‘’This abuse of fundamental freedoms is the core of our legal action against him, Humo magazine and the publisher,’’ Rabbi Margolin concluded.