Sharp increase in anti-Semitic offences in Belgium

Belgium saw a 30% increase in the number of anti-Semitic offences reported in 2012, writes Israeli daily Haaretz. Edouard Delruelle, president of government agency the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, said his organisation had documented 88 complaints of anti-Semitism in 2012, compared to 62 the previous year and 57 the year before that. “The Jewish community is right to be concerned,” Delruelle told La Dernière Heure. “The figures show that anti-Semitism persists in Belgium. These figures are merely indicative, the tip of the iceberg, because many victims do not report.” The figures for 2012 include 11 cases of vandalism, 15 verbal assaults on the street, 13 Holocaust denials and 28 insults made online. Other attacks included intimidation and harassment. Delruelle said the figures were consistent with the 58% rise in anti-Semitic incidents in France documented in a report by the French-Jewish security unit SPCJ released this week. That report said 614 anti-Semitic attacks had been documented in France in 2012 compared to 389 in 2011. France has a Jewish population of approximately half a million compared to Belgium’s estimated 40,000.

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