Open Letter MEPs to HRVP Borrell on Qatar

Responding to the news this morning that a court in Ghent has acquitted Herman Brusselmans for Holocaust Denial or Trivialisation and for Racism or Hate speech, the Chairman of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin said in statement,

“Jewish Communities across Belgium and across Europe have just been told that hate laws don’t apply to Jews in the Kingdom.

The Courts think it OK for a man, read by hundreds of thousands of people, to incite murder and spread hate.

The Court thinks it’s ok to write in a national publication that you want to stick a knife in the throat of every Jew you come across in anger at the situation in Gaza.

Belgium has just normalised hate speech. It has given a green light to antisemitism. It has said that when it comes to Jews, everything is permitted.

This is a disgraceful and utterly shameful outcome, one that calls into very question the future of Jews in Belgium. Brusselmans words were so clear cut. And his acquittal leaves a gaping wound between Jews and the very state that is supposed to care for its wellbeing.

The new Belgium Government has the urgent duty to bring forward new legislation to prevent such reprehensible and morally bankrupt decisions in the future when it comes to the fight against antisemitism.”

First Rabbi arrested since the Nazis for performing circumcision – in Ireland.

“You cannot imprison the Jewish faith” say European Jewish Association, calling for Rabbi’s immediate release.

The Chairman of the ‏European Jewish Association (EJA), Rabbi Menachem Margolin, is demanding the immediate release of a British rabbi who was arrested in Ireland for performing circumcision.

Rabbi Margolin is calling on the President of Ireland, Michael Higgins, Prime Minister Simon Harris and the Speaker of the Irish Parliament to intervene for the immediate release of the certified Mohel who was arrested yesterday in Dublin, Ireland, without bail, for performing circumcision.

The certified Mohel, Rabbi Yonathan Avraham, 47 years old, father of 10 children, who works legally in England, arrived in neighboring Ireland, was arrested in a raid by the Dublin police on the house where the religious ceremony was performed. He has decades of experience, has performed circumcision all over Europe and is recognised as leading expert and practitioner of this important rite.

“circumcision is not a crime but a commandment practiced by the Jewish religion for more than 3000 years said Rabbi Margolin.

The last time anybody was arrested for performing circumcision was under the Nazis, whose first laws in their blind and irrational hatred of the Jewish people targeted this practice. That the Irish legal system is now second to Nazi germany is a sad and incongruous indictment.

Circumcision has been adopted by other religions and recognized as a practice by the World Health Organization, which recommends in many cases the circumcision of boys. About thirty percent of the men in the world – and not only Jews, are circumcised and live healthy lives,” notes Rabbi Margolin.

The chairman of the ‏European Jewish Association stated that the arrest sends a clear message that Jews are no longer welcome in Ireland and demands that the Mohel be released even before Shabbat begins on Friday evening.

“The arrest not only infringes the fundamental right of freedom of religion but it also humiliates the parents involved by suggesting that they do not really care for their children. All those parents who circumcised their children, went through the same procedure themselves and of course they would not have done so if it involved “physical or mental harm to the newborn, above all a mohel such as Rabbi Yonathan goes through many, many years of study and training before even being allowed to practice. We are not barbarians!”

Rabbi Margolin appealed to the Speaker of the Irish Parliament, who at the beginning of the year was hosted by EJA at Auschwitz, to act for the immediate release of the Mohel and promote legislation that would prevent such an arrest in the future.
Rabbi Margolin also appealed to the President of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Herzog, whose grandfather served as the Chief Rabbi of Ireland, with a request that he work this morning with the heads of the Irish government for the immediate release of the Mohel

BRUTAL ASSAULTS IN AMSTERDAM AGAINST ISRAELIS

STATEMENT BY DUTCH CHIEF RABBI BINYOMIN JACOBS, PRESIDENT OF IPOR DUTCH JEWISH COMMUNITIES PRESIDENT ELLEN VAN PRAAGH, AND EUROPEAN JEWISH ASSOCIATION CHAIRMAN RABBI MENACHEM MARGOLIN

OUR MESSAGE TO DUTCH GOVERNMENT AND EUROPEAN LEADERS:

‘”Wake up! A cancer of jew hate is plaguing the continent. From here on in, it cannot be business as usual when it comes to antisemitism.”

In a statement following a series of brutal assaults against Israeli citizens last night in Amsterdam following a football match, the Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands Binyomin Jacobs, President of IPOR Jewish Communities Ellen Van Praagh and the Chairman of the European Jewish Association Rabbi Menachem Margolin said

“We are shocked but not surprised at the disgusting scenes we saw last night in the Dutch Capital.

“This was not hooliganism. Hooliganism is a regular occurrence at football games. The heavy presence of police and security forces in Amsterdam last night attests to this. They were prepared and ready for it. Antisemitism is the only motive here.

“But what followed afterwards – these disgusting and brutal assaults, are the strongest example of the extreme antisemitism, the all-pervading Jew hatred, that is running like a cancer throughout the continent. When writers like Herman Brusselmans can say with impunity that he wants to stick a knife in the throat of every Jew he meets, this is the outcome.

“People roaming the streets in masks asking people if they were Jewish then assaulting them and throwing them into canals. This is Europe now in 2024.

“While we welcome the statements of support and outrage from the Dutch Government, and their reaching out to us, a much pro-active more approach is needed. There must be meaningful engagement with the Jewish community from the Dutch Government . We want to be heard. We need action.

“We call this hate a Cancer. It requires immediate surgery. These assaults are not an isolated incident. It is part of a much bigger picture of Jew hate since October 7th in the Netherlands, Jews cannot take public transport, they are fearful.  

“Every day, across the continent, hundreds of smaller incidents of Jew hate take place. They do not receive the public response, nor the government response they deserve.

“We say to the Dutch government and governments across Europe: wake up. It cannot be business as usual from now on when it comes to fighting antisemitism.” Ends

European Jewish Association started legal incitement to murder proceedings against the writer who says in Humo magazine that he wants “to shove a sharp knife in the throat of every Jew I come across”

The Brussels based European Jewish Association (EJA) representing hundreds of Jewish communities across the continent is starting legal action against a writer who was published in Belgian magazine Humo for incitement to murder.

It is also demanding a full public apology from the magazine and the suspension of the writer involved.

“There is nothing, nothing even remotely funny, ironic or satirical about the psychopathic incitement to murder Jews,” says Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the EJA chairman.

In the Humo piece Herman Brusselmans accuses Netanyahu of murdering children and dragging the world into a third world war: “The Middle East will explode, with unruly consequences for the rest of the world. And all this by a small, thick and bald Jew, who bears the ominous name of Bibi Netanyahu. I see a picture of a Palestinian child crying and screaming completely beyond all senses to his mother lying under the debris, and I imagine that this child is my son Roman, and the mother is my friend Lena, and I am so angry that I want to push a sharp knife in the throat of every Jew I come across.”

Rabbi Margolin added:

“We know this is a shock-jock journalist, who pushes the boundaries. But publicly expressing his desire to stab the throat of any Jew he comes across is psychopathic. Given his popularity and infamy, it is also an invitation for others to do likewise. It is completely and utterly out of all bounds. It nothing short of incitement to murder.

“The publication of this disgusting column indicates a serious flaw in the judgment of the editors.

“We are taking a legal case against the writer for the serious charge of incitement to murder. We are also demanding a full apology in public from Humo for its publication and the suspension of the writer involved.”