Herman Brusselmans appeared this morning before the criminal court in Ghent after he was directly summoned by the non-profit organization Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID) following his controversial column in There.
But the case was immediately postponed to February 4 because the court wants more precise information from the JID lawyers about the contents of the complaint. Brusselmans himself was present at the hearing. “I am shocked by the charges because they are not justified,” Brusselmans said as he left the courtroom in Ghent. “I am not a racist, I am not an anti-Semite and I do not encourage negationism. All I wanted to say is that, like countless people, I am outraged by what is happening in Gaza.”
Arnon Grunberg resigned
In the column in question There wrote Brusselmans: “I see an image of a crying and screaming Palestinian boy who is completely out of his mind calling for his mother lying under the rubble, and I imagine that that boy is my own son Roman, and the mother is m my own friend Lena, and I get so angry that I want to ram a pointed knife down the throat of every Jew I meet. Of course you always have to think: not every Jew is a murderous bastard, and to give shape to that thought I imagine an elderly Jewish man shuffling through my own street, dressed in a washed shirt, a fake cotton pants and old sandals, and I feel sorry for him and almost have tears in my eyes, but a moment later I wish him to hell, and yes, that is a mood swing, and my upcoming collection will unfortunately be full of that .”
The passage caused a major wave of indignation that reached beyond national borders. The writer Arnon Grunberg resigned from There after 25 years of service as a columnist.
The European Jewish Association (EJA) filed a civil claim before the investigating judge on the basis of incitement to hatred or violence against the Jewish community. But the council chamber in Ghent has already decided that the complaint is inadmissible. EJA has appealed. The Dutch Jewish umbrella organization has also filed a report with the court in Amsterdam. “The anti-Semitic hatred committed by Brusselmans is cross-border and was helped by the weekly magazine There that serves as a courier to thousands of Dutch readers,” says chairman Chanan Hertzberger.
In addition to those complaints, there is also the direct summons by the JID that forced Brusselmans to appear in court this morning.
Wailing Wall
Omar Souidi, Brusselmans’ lawyer, was happy that the judge postponed the case. “The summons is unclear. At first we thought it was written in Hebrew. We are pleased that the judge is now asking for clarification. I have the impression that they are trying to move the Wailing Wall to Ghent. There are many things being fired at Herman Brusselmans and we will of course defend him to the last breath.” The JID lawyer is not only targeting one controversial column, but a whole series of columns by Brusselmans, starting from 2011.
