Brussels – An employee of a state-funded charity in Belgium has
accused “Israel’s allies” of “inflating” the country’s antisemitism problem to
distract from its treatment of Palestinians.
Brigitte Herremans, who works for Catholic organisations Broederlijk
Delen and Pax Christi, made the comments on Flemish Radio 1.
Earlier in the year, she was refused entry into Israel at Ben Gurion
Airport while travelling with a group of activists to experience life in the
West Bank.
Ms Herremans was refused entry after refusing to provide airport
security with details of her contacts in the country, which are needed to
obtain a visa.
Her suggestion that pro-Israeli activists exaggerate the state of antisemitism
in Belgium arrives two years after four people were killed during a terrorist
attack at Brussels’s Jewish museum.
“When you sometimes hear criticism from certain pro-Israel circles, also
in Belgium, then I think that mostly they try to vastly inflate this business
to distract from the heart of the matter: Israel tolerates no criticism and
wants to do only as it pleases in the Palestinian territories,” she said.
Ms Herremans claimed that, whereas her employers “take into account
Israel’s security needs”, Israel “feels it can afford to persecute human rights
activists… because no sanctions are applied against it, as they are in Russia.”
