The Belgian city of Aalst went ahead with its traditional Carnival parade, despite calls from Jewish organisations and Israel to ban the event over its antisemitic floats and costumes.
This year’s parade included participants dressed in costumes of caricatured Jewish stereotypes, with some wearing hooked noses, insect costumes, and exaggerated outfits meant to depict Orthodox Jews.
One of the floats also included three Jewish caricatures placed alongside gold bars. Some revelers were also dressed in costumes meant to represent Nazi officers.
Lawmakers in the European Parliament had urged officials in Aalst to make sure this year’s parade was free from “manifestations of hatred.” Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on the Belgian government to ban the “hate-filled” parade altogether.
The city’s Carnival parade lost its UNESCO Jewish heritage status over the “recurrence of racist and antisemitic representation.” Revelers then dressed in Nazi costumes, making fun of the move.
The city’s mayor dismissed criticism and calls for a ban on the festivities, saying “let Aalst be Aalst. “This is not an antisemitic parade,” Mayor Christoph D’Haese told reporters on Sunday. “Aalst is not an antisemitic city.” D’Haese, of the right-wing nationalist New Flemish Alliance party, added that the goal of the parade is “not to hurt anyone.” City authorities have repeatedly defended the parade as an expression of free speech and saying the costumes and floats are intended to be “satirical.”
The Aalst Carnival celebrations, which are more than 600 years old, were given UNESCO cultural heritage status in 2010. Last year’s parade prompted a wave of criticism from the EU and from Jewish groups after a float included Jewish caricatures with bags of money that were surrounded by rats.
Belgium’s PM says representation of Jews at Aalst Carnival “damage our values and country’s reputation”
”The representations of the Jewish community at the Aalst carnival damage our values as well as the reputation of our country”, declared Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès in reaction to the carnival’s display of antisemitic stereotypes.
In a press release, Wilmès said that ‘’Belgium is a democracy based on fundamental freedoms which include freedom of expression. This value implies in particular the freedom to criticise, to blaspheme, to caricature.”
However, she said, “this freedom evolves in a precise legal framework which aims to protect individuals from racism, antisemitism and other discrimination.’’
“It is therefore up to the competent institutions and to the courts to determine whether the events which took place during the carnival break the law,” Wilmès said.
CCOJB, the country’s EJC affiliate welcomes response of Belgian political class
The Committee for the Coordination of Belgian Jewish Organisations has praised the strong reaction of democratic forces in the country to displays of antisemitism which once again marked the Aalst Carnival.
In a statement, the CCOJB said that the dehumanisation and depiction of Jews as cockroaches and the spreading of conspiracy theories at the event had again proves that the Jewish community was not standing alone against antisemitism.
“Antisemitism, like all racism, is everyone’s problem, and there are never enough times to say it,”.
CCOJB President and Vice President of the EJC Yohan Benizri said:
“Our efforts have not been in vain. The Jewish community is not alone, and our country does not have to be ashamed when we are mobilised in such numbers. We are obviously united against those who confuse freedom of expression with guilty stupidity, whether their actions are criminally reprehensible or not.”
The excitement and stubbornness of some is deplorable, but an exemplary collective reaction will protect our country against the spread of hatred. Indeed, when a child misbehaves in school, and continues because he is either fundamentally bad or because he simply because he does not understand, the challenge is the awareness and reaction of others,” the statement concluded.
