Prime minister calls on Jews to stay in Belgium

Prime minister Charles Michel has made a plea to Belgian Jews to stay in the country rather than migrate to Israel. Speaking on Radio 1, he said that security measures to protect the Jewish community would remain in place even if the national terrorism threat level, which remains at three, was lowered.

Michel was responding to a statement by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Sunday calling on European Jews to migrate to Israel to escape future terrorist attacks. Several European leaders criticised Netanyahu’s comments, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, who insisted that her government was doing everything possible to protect Jewish neighbourhoods in the aftermath of recent attacks in Paris and Copenhagen.  

Michel made a similar statement yesterday, saying “Belgium without Jews is no longer Belgium. Europe without Jews is no longer Europe”. He called on Jews not to leave because they were afraid. “The primary role of the state is to do everything in its power to keep citizens safe,” he told Radio 1. 

In an interview with De Morgen, Michael Freilich, editor of the Antwerp-based Jewish newspaper Joods Actueel, said that the local community had mixed feelings about Netanyahu’s offer. “On the one hand, it is encouraging,” he said. “Whatever happens, we know that we can always move there. But on the other hand, people here feel that they are Jewish and Belgian, not Israeli.”

photo courtesy Het Nieuwsblad