JTA \u2013 A diplomatic spat erupted on Wednesday after Belgian prosecutors moved to charge two Jewish men tied to ritual circumcisions, prompting Israeli and United States\u00a0officials to accuse Belgium of targeting Jews for practising their faith.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gideon Sa\u2019ar, Israel\u2019s\u00a0Minister of\u00a0Foreign\u00a0Affairs,\u00a0laid\u00a0into the country in a post on X\u00a0on\u00a0Wednesday morning, calling the indictments a \u201cscarlet letter on Belgian society\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this act Belgium joins a short and shameful list, together with Ireland, of countries that use criminal law to prosecute Jews for practising Judaism,\u201d Sa\u2019ar wrote, later calling circumcision a \u201ccornerstone of Jewish faith\u201d and urging the Belgian government to \u201cact immediately and to find a solution\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sa\u2019ar\u2019s condemnation was quickly joined by the US ambassador to Belgium, Bill White, who had previously called on Belgium to drop the \u201cridiculous and antisemitic\u201d investigation of mohels in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a shameful stain on Belgium,\u201d White wrote in a post on X. \u201cThe prosecution of these religious figures\u00a0[mohels], one of whom is American, is WRONG and\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0be tolerated. Belgium will be thought of now as antisemitic by\u00a0the\u00a0world. Until this is resolved\u00a0\u2012\u00a0there is no way around it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
White, a President Donald Trump appointee who faced criticism for amplifying social media posts by a far-right Belgian political activist convicted of racism and Holocaust denial, added that the \u201cTrump\u00a0administration condemns this judicial action\u201d and called on the Belgian government to \u201cwork with the Jewish leaders and communities to find a certification solution immediately\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The condemnation by White and Sa\u2019ar comes after the Antwerp Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office announced that it intends to prosecute two Jewish men on charges related to performing circumcisions, a practice that is required by law to be performed by licensed medical professionals in Belgium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year, Belgian authorities raided multiple sites, including two in Antwerp\u2019s Jewish Quarter, at the beginning of an investigation into illegal circumcisions. Investigators also requested lists of children who had recently been circumcised, according to\u00a0VRT NWS, the Flemish public broadcaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the sharp criticism by the two leaders was later dismissed by Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Pr\u00e9vot, who wrote in reply to White\u2019s post that it was \u201cinappropriate to publicly criticise a country and tarnish its image simply because you disagree with judicial proceedings\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI recall that the proceedings in question were initiated by representatives of the Jewish community themselves,\u201d\u00a0Pr\u00e9vot\u00a0said. \u201cTo portray those as a country\u2019s desire to undermine the religious freedom of Jews is defamatory. This freedom has never been called into question and never will be in our country. Our Constitution protects it. And it is not for an ambassador to dictate the government\u2019s agenda.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In response to Sa\u2019ar\u2019s post, Pr\u00e9vot wrote, \u201cEnough with these caricatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSince you yourself recently urged against conducting diplomacy via Twitter, I suggest that we discuss all these issues during a meeting in Israel at a time that suits you best, in order to put an end\u00a0to any misinterpretations,\u201d\u00a0Pr\u00e9vot\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JTA \u2013 A diplomatic spat erupted on Wednesday after Belgian prosecutors moved to charge two Jewish men tied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1900,7,9851,2041,2039],"class_list":{"0":"post-14678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgian","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-bris","11":"tag-gideon-saar","12":"tag-jta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116539927001693971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}