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\n Published on
\n 17\/02\/2026 – 13:39 GMT+1\n <\/p>\n
Belgium summoned the US ambassador on Tuesday after a dispute unfolded on social media over accusations of antisemitic prosecution of the Jewish community in the country.<\/p>\n
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The debate was sparked by the news that the Belgian authorities are investigating whether three men in Antwerp were performing circumcisions without certified medical training, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
Belgian law states that all medical procedures must be performed by licensed professionals \u2014 a rule Belgium believes extends to mohels, who perform circumcision according to Jewish rites.<\/p>\n
US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White said in a post on X on Monday that “antisemitism is unacceptable in any form and it must be rooted out of our society.” <\/p>\n
According to White, the investigation represented “unacceptable harassment of the Jewish community here in Antwerp and in Belgium.”<\/p>\n
White also criticised Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, calling him “very rude” and accusing him of employing a “sneaky tactic” in the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou must make a legal provision to allow Jewish religious mohels to perform their duties here in Belgium,” he said.<\/p>\n
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Pr\u00e9vot responded in a separate post on X, writing that “labeling Belgium as antisemitic is not just wrong, it\u2019s dangerous disinformation that undermines the real fight against hatred.” <\/p>\n
“An ambassador accredited to Belgium has a responsibility to respect our institutions, our elected representatives, and the independence of our judicial system,” Pr\u00e9vot said. <\/p>\n
“Personal attacks against a Belgian minister and interference in judicial matters violate basic diplomatic norms.”<\/p>\n
Pr\u00e9vot said that \u201cBelgian law permits ritual circumcision when performed by a qualified physician under strict health and safety standards\u201d. <\/p>\n
He also stated that he would not comment on an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
Additional sources \u2022 AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 17\/02\/2026 – 13:39 GMT+1 Belgium summoned the US ambassador on Tuesday after a dispute unfolded on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2004,236,7,87],"class_list":{"0":"post-2262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-ambassador","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-belgium","11":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262","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=2262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}