”The Antwerp hall discriminates against Jews, and is guilty of antisemitism according to the universally accepted definition – the IHRA’s . Our message to the government in Antwerp is stop funding this hall immediately. You are currently funding discrimination,” stated Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association.

A Jewish school in Antwerp was refused the use of a publicly funded hall, in the city for a school event because of the war in Gaza.

After initially having their booking confirmed, the school received the following email from management of the hall:  “We reviewed your request internally and realized that we responded too quickly. Although we have not yet spoken out explicitly about the Palestinian cause, we look with horror at the genocide that is currently taking place in Gaza. We also work closely with several Palestinian artists who are also suffering from the occupation. For these reasons, we cannot currently respond to a rental request from an organization for which we see links with present-day Israel.”

In a statement issued on Friday, the European Jewish Association (EJA), which represents hundreds of Jewish communities all over Europe, called for the immediate dismissal of the manager of the hall in the city and demanded that the government of Antwerp cease public funding for it.

European Jewish Association Chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, said in the statement: “The fact that an event hall in Antwerp was prepared to discriminate so brazenly and openly, tells us that new management is urgently needed and that this space is wholly unfit for public funding. We can only imagine what would happen if this space refused access to any other minority. But for Jews all is permitted. No, this cannot stand.”

He added, “It is naked discrimination based on a conflict thousands of kilometers away on the most innocent of all, Jewish Schoolchildren. It is an attempt at social exclusion, at marginalization. And if it is allowed to stand, the message is simple: “Jews, you are second class citizens and you are to be punished for events elsewhere.” It is a breach of the very IHRA definition of antisemitism, and what it was created to stop. It also has strong echoes of the Nazi past”.

Rabbi Margolin concluded: “In short, this hall discriminates against Jews, and is guilty of antisemitism according to the universally accepted definition – the IHRA’s . Our message to the government in Antwerp is stop funding this hall immediately. You are currently funding discrimination.”