Anti-Semitic poster kills Zionism debate in Brussels

The Brussels commune of Molenbeek has cancelled a debate on Zionism following complaints about the organisers’ use of anti-Semitic imagery to advertise the event. The event, planned by the Brussels branch of the Socialist Party, was cancelled on Monday following criticism of a poster showing a caricature of a snake-eyed Israeli soldier wearing the mask of an ultra-Orthodox Jew. The soldier is depicted holding one finger on the scales of justice, tipping it toward a single white man. A group of non-white people are depicted on the other side. “This kind of caricature that stigmatises an entire community is of course unacceptable in form and essence,” Vittorio Mettewie, the Socialist Party president for Molenbeek, told the Sudinfo website. He added that there were “Nazi overtones” to the caricature, which advertised the event titled ‘Let’s talk freely and seriously about Zionism’.  The cancellation followed criticism by Brussels MP Alain Destexhe, who said the caricature, by unabashed anti-Semitic French artist Zeon, was “worthy of Nazi propaganda about the all-powerful Jew”.

(JTA)