{"id":2636,"date":"2026-02-19T18:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/2636\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T18:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:08:18","slug":"jewish-mp-in-belgium-accused-of-split-loyalty-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/2636\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish MP in Belgium accused of ‘split loyalty\u2019 to US"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium’s<\/a> only Jewish MP, Michael Freilich, has been pushed into the center of a diplomatic and internal storm regarding Jewish circumcisions in Belgium.<\/p>\n

The storm began on Monday, when a public argument broke out between US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Pr\u00e9vot. White took to X\/Twitter to demand that Belgium end an investigation into mohalim (professionals who perform circumcision) who may have been using unsafe practices while circumcising Jewish babies.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must make a legal provision to allow Jewish religious mohels to perform their duties here in Belgium. It\u2019s done in all civilized countries as a legal procedure,\u201d White tweeted.<\/p>\n

Pr\u00e9vot retorted that any suggestion that Belgium<\/a> is antisemitic was \u201cfalse, offensive, and unacceptable\u201d and claimed that \u201cBelgian law permits ritual circumcision when performed by a qualified physician under strict health and safety standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

White\u2019s post comes nearly a year after Belgian authorities raided multiple sites, including two in Antwerp\u2019s Jewish Quarter, at the outset of an investigation into illegal circumcisions. The Antwerp raids stemmed from a complaint made by a member of the Jewish community named Moshe Friedman, a local rabbi, who filed a police complaint against six mohalim who practice metzitzah b\u2019peh, a custom in which the circumciser cleans the circumcision wound by suctioning through a straw.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On the same day, N-VA MP Michael Freilich told newspaper HLN that he had raised the matter of Belgium’s stance on circumcision practices during a visit to Washington DC in May 2025, at the same time as the raids were carried out in the Antwerp Jewish neighborhood.<\/p>\n

“I asked them to assist us in finding the correct legislation, since circumcision is established in the United States<\/a>,” he told De Standaard.<\/p>\n

Freilich then called on European Commissioner for Health Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi to put pressure on Belgium’s health minister to find a solution.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, CD&V chairman Sammy Mahdi wrote on Instagram that Freilich’s behavior is “worrying” and “totally inappropriate.”<\/p>\n

“Imagine that a PS MP with a Muslim background is going to lobby in Morocco or Qatar to influence a court case in Belgium,” he said. “Those who serve Belgian interests are not going to ask Trump’s clique to influence our legislation.”<\/p>\n

Other individuals and media sites have waged “unjustified and dangerous attempts to discredit him,” in the words of the Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID). Belgium\u2019s Green Party demanded an ethical investigation into Freilich. Rumours have spread that Freilich exerted pressure on the US to change Belgian domestic policy, thus suggesting he is disloyal to his country (a common antisemitic trope).<\/p>\n

“Freilich does not behave like a representative of the Belgian people. He has a history of loyalty to foreign countries and defending Israeli and American interests,” said Greens federal deputy Meyrem Almaci.<\/p>\n

Freilich clarified he did not believe Belgium is antisemitic<\/p>\n

This is despite Freilich himself clarifying on Radio Judaica that “Belgium, a beautiful country, could not be considered antisemitic.”<\/p>\n

“Accusing a Jewish official of disloyalty to his country is textbook antisemitism<\/a>,” said Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun. “The smear campaign waged against MP Michael Freilich is abhorrent and represents nothing short of a modern-day Dreyfus Affair.”<\/p>\n

“Criticism of positions is legitimate. Spreading insinuations and repeating old antisemitic tropes is not,” said JID.<\/p>\n

“Michael Freilich is a democratically elected Belgian MP, and we reject any attempt at character assassination or public manhunt.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium’s only Jewish MP, Michael Freilich, has been pushed into the center of a diplomatic and internal storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[236,7,1898,1400,2025],"class_list":{"0":"post-2636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-circumcision","11":"tag-diaspora","12":"tag-judaism"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636","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=2636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}