The Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organisations of Belgium (CCOJB) and the Forum der Joodse Organisaties (FJO) issued a statement condemning a staged performance that took place in the Brussels commune of Saint-Gilles, as part of the Festival Résistance, which glorified Hamas and terrorism.
“The Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organisations of Belgium (CCOJB) and the Forum der Joodse Organisaties (FJO), representing the Belgian Jewish community, express deep concern about the conflation and oversimplification of the situation in the Middle East, which endangers Belgian Jews who are being held accountable for events taking place thousands of kilometres away. This comes in the worrying context of the surge in antisemitism since 7 October 2023.
The CCOJB and FJO express their compassion and sorrow for all civilian deaths resulting from the war triggered by the barbaric massacres committed by Hamas terrorists.
They regret the one-sided narratives propagated by certain political parties and media outlets, which lay the blame solely on Israel, without acknowledging Hamas’s responsibility for the continuation of the war and the suffering of Gaza’s population. This includes its repeated rejection of ceasefires proposed by mediators and accepted by Israel, as well as its large-scale misappropriation of humanitarian aid.
An example of this is the eight-page feature published by Le Soir on 7–8–9 June 2025, which remarkably fails to even mention Hamas, while using the word “genocide” dozens of times – a term whose application to Israel is clearly debatable in the absence of intent.
Why are these same voices not demanding that Hamas release the Israeli hostages, abducted and held in conditions amounting to crimes against humanity, and lay down its arms – which would evidently bring an immediate end to the war?
Why do they encourage the importation of this conflict into Belgium, despite years of repeated appeals to prevent exactly that?
Why do they not promote messages of peace instead of fuelling and fostering hatred?
This hatred was once again inflamed by a shameful spectacle staged in public space in the municipality of Saint-Gilles during a pro-Palestinian festival held over the Pentecost weekend. The performance featured men wearing keffiyehs simulating and glorifying the massacres of 7 October.
Yet it is the responsibility of political parties and the media to safeguard social cohesion and peaceful coexistence among all communities within the country.
This responsibility requires them to protect all citizens and, in particular, to make clear that Belgian Jews bear no responsibility whatsoever for a conflict taking place 4,000 kilometres away.
This message must be unequivocally and repeatedly stated, with a firm commitment to ending the deep sense of insecurity experienced by a Jewish community increasingly anxious about its future in Belgium.”
