An intensive week-long training course in Israel on battling antisemitism was completed by a 35-member Belgian security team, including the police chief of Antwerp, the Israeli Diaspora Affairs Ministry stated over the weekend.
This program, which coincides with an increase in anti-Semitism worldwide, is the third delegation of this kind the ministry has organized this year and builds on earlier productive collaborations with security officers from the Baltic States and Brazil.
The effort, according to Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, aims to equip participants with the know-how and abilities to successfully fight antisemitism at home.
The team was informed on Israel’s fight against terrorism as well as “the unique challenges and threats that the Jewish community faces in the shadow of increasing antisemitism in Europe,” he added in a statement.
The Belgian Ambassador to Israel, Jean-Luc Bodson, stated, “We are determined to pursue the fight against antisemitism.”
We are determined to work not only from top to bottom [in society], but from the other way as well,” he continued.
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel has designated the ambassador’s German grandmother as a Righteous Among the Nations for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.
The mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, mentioned that the Jewish community had a long history in the city and that they had been resettled there during the Spanish Inquisition as evidence.
He stated, “We have a long relationship with the Jewish population in Antwerp, and we are dedicated to their welfare.
While there, the delegation also went to Yad Vashem and the Old City of Jerusalem. 30,000 Jews, or 0.25% of Belgium’s population, are estimated to be living there now.
The majority reside in Brussels or Antwerp, which are home to some of Europe’s biggest ultra-Orthodox Jewish populations.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke at the European Parliament in Brussels earlier this year to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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