Brussels Ban on Anti-Semites’ Summit

Shimon Samuels

Shimon Samuels

Shimon Samuels and the Simon Wiesenthal Center have had a significant victory in their effort to block a summit of anti-Semitic leaders that had been planned for Belgium.  Their report follows:

Wiesenthal Centre commends Belgian Interior Minister, urging her to
now block hatefest organizer’s candidacy in 25 May European Parliament  elections” 4 May, The Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s call for a ban on today’s extreme right hatefest was followed up by Minister of Interior Joelle Millequet and Mayor Eric Thomas of the Brussels suburb of Anderlecht, as a threat to public order.

The ban was supported by the 18 other municipalities of the capital to
ensure that the venue could not be changed at the last minute and
endorsed by the Conseil d’Etat (Constitutional Court) and some 500
invitees were finally dispersed by police water cannon.

The Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon
Samuels, stated,”this victory for Belgian democracy is a defeat for
French anti-Semites, Dieudonnee and Alain Soral, who had presented their
“Anti-Zionist Party” for the last European Parliament (EP) elections
in 2009.”

He pointed out that,” ‘Debout les Belges!’ (Stand Up Belgians!) – the
organizers of today’s provocation – are standing for the current EP
elections on 25 May,although Its leader, Laurent Louis had been
stripped of his Belgian Parliamentary immunity while making a
‘quenelle inverted Hitler salute in the Chamber. He had likewise,mocked
the Holocaust as ‘set up and financed by the pioneers of Zionism’ and
posed for photos outside the Parliament standing on an Israeli flag”

Samuels, congratulating the Interior Minister for imposing the
ban, urged her now “to block ‘Debout les Belges’ candidacy for the May
European elections.”

“Unmitigated racists elected to a European Union institution
headquartered in Brussels would not only shame Belgium and stain the
European Parliament. It would provide a multiplier effect for neo-Nazi
hate and violence across the Continent”, charged
Samuels.