Ahead of the annual Holocaust commemoration organised by the Forum of Jewish Organisations, Belgian PM Bart De Wever (Flemish nationalist N-VA) has responded to the new furore over the possible prosecution of two Jewish circumcisers.
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Prime Minister De Wever responds to US ambassador: ‘Belgium is not an anti-Semitic state’
Colin Clapson
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‘Belgium is not an anti-Semitic state; that is nonsense,’ De Wever said in response to the latest accusations made by US Ambassador Bill White and the Israeli Foreign Minister.
As Belgian Foreign Minister Prévot (Francophone centrist) noted earlier, De Wever considers it inappropriate that the US ambassador shows scant respect for Belgium’s constitutional democracy that is based on a separation of powers that means the executive branch does not interfere in the due process of law in the courts. According to the Prime Minister, religious freedom must be reconciled with the laws of the land.
‘Circumcision is essential to the Jewish faith and Islam, but so are the quality standards of our legislation. You have to reconcile the two. What you must not do is create a whole social controversy around it with inflammatory statements about anti-Semitism. None of that contributes anything,’ De Wever told VRT News.