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A view of Thursday's ceremony at the Brussels Jewish Memorial
Photo: EJP
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BRUSSELS (EJP)--- A ceremony organised on Thursday to protest against the desecration of a memorial for Holocaust victims was disrupted when Belgian Defence minister referred to the killing of civilians in the conflict in Lebanon in his speech.
Socialist Minister André Flahaut was speaking before a crowd of 500 mainly Jewish people, who had gathered at the vandalised monument.
“This Memorial reminds us of the futility and cruelty of war, of all wars, which first of all affect innocent civilians,” he said.
The attack on the memorial, discovered last Monday, was described as "devastating” and “clearly anti-Semitic” by Jewish officials.
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Belgian Defence Minister André Flahaut |
No traces
The gate of the memorial’s crypt was ripped out, documents were destroyed, windows broken and an urn containing ashes from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp was desecrated and emptied.
”These wars call upon us citizens and political representatives. We must leave no stone unturned to stop the sound of arms and give place to dialogue, common sense, reason, diplomacy, and to all actors who will favour and secure peace,” Minister Flahaut added, sparking outrage in the crowd which booed him several times.
“This is not the place for such speech. He is referring to the conflict in the Middle East. This is unacceptable,” one of the participants, Pedro Weinreb, told EJP.
«It’s enough» several angry people shouted, interrupting the minister’s speech.
Flahaut later explained to EJP that he wanted to say that the war should stop the war as soon as possible and that this was the position of the Belgian government.
Symbol of Judaism
The rally had been called by the “Union of deportees in Belgium-Sons and Daughters of Deportation”.
Although the Memorial is located in Anderlecht, a Brussels district with a large Arab population, there is no indication that the act could be linked to the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who is currently on holiday, was said to be "shocked" by this attack, his cabinet announced.
"It is clearly an anti-Semitic act because it reaches a symbol of Judaism in Belgium," Philippe Markiewicz, president of CCOJB, the umbrella group of Jewish organisations in Belgium, told EJP.
During the ceremony, Anderlecht Mayor Jacques Simonet said the Jewish community can be assured that the Belgian public authorities «will stand firm against racism and anti-Semitism. »
He also announced that measures would be taken to secure the Memorial site.
The Brussels National Monument to the Jewish Martyrs of Belgium bears the names of 25,411 men, women and children deported from Belgium to Auschwitz-Birkenau during WWII.