Complaint Submitted by EUJS in Response to Antisemitic Slogans Chanted During Demonstration

Get The Trolls Out Belgian partner organisation European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) submitted complaints to two bodies after antisemitic chants were used during a demonstration in Brussels.

On the 28th of June, 2020, a demonstration took place at the Place du Trône in Brussels. During the event, antisemitic slogans were chanted. A group of protesters could be heard chanting “'Khaybar, khaybar, Ya ya'ud, jaysh Muhammad sawfa ya'ud (“ Khaybar, Khaybar O Jews, Muhammad's army will return. ”). The chant was caught on video. The slogan refers to a symbol of Muslim domination over Jews. Back in 2014, a similar event resulted in a criminal conviction, confirmed on appeal.

EUJS submitted a complaint to Comité P, which handles police complaints, and UNIA, which handles reports of discrimination in Belgium. EUJS explained their reasoning behind the complaint:

“EUJS is speaking to you because we believe that in the future we should be preventing rather than curing. In other words, the Brussels Police cannot tolerate anti-Semitic chants, and should have acted at the time to prevent this from happening. Cries of this sort are a danger to the Belgian Jewish community. Tolerating this kind of shouting suggests that the Belgian state is indifferent if some citizens call for the death of a Belgian minority. We also recall that the 1981 “Anti Racism and Xenophobia” law, updated in 2007, suggests that a police intervention in this case complies with the Belgian legal system.”

UNIA responded to the complaint examplaining that they had opened a file concerned the incident and lodged a complaint with the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. UNIA also clarified that they spend significant resources training police officers in the investigation and pro security of discrimination and hate crimes.