Speech to the Jewish community

Ladies and gentlemen,

Seventy years ago, the Allies discovered the appalling and indescribable horror of the death camps. The Holocaust is without parallel in human history – a history with no shortage of atrocities.

It was an industrial, planned and methodical crime. A crime against the very essence of humanity. A crime that sought to deny part of the human race the right to be human at all.

That was seventy years ago. That was yesterday.

Today, I stand before you to commemorate that tragic event. I stand before you to pay homage to the six million Jews who were exterminated during the war.

I stand before you to reaffirm our condemnation of a crime that can never be pardoned. Tomorrow, I shall be at Auschwitz. On 5 May, I will take part in the Train des 1000.

But today, I am also here to express the government's solidarity with your community, which is once again the target of anti-Semitic hatred.

I cannot emphasise this enough: our solidarity is absolute. Our solidarity is unambiguous. 

In France, the horrific attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher targeted innocent people. We know now why they were murdered. They were murdered because they were journalists. They were murdered because they were police officers. They were murdered because they were Jewish.

In Belgium, eight months ago, four people were killed in cold blood in a museum close to here.

These crimes are part of a dramatic upsurge in anti-Semitism in Belgium. Anti-Semitic acts increased by 60% in 2014.

A few weeks ago, a girl called Sarah left her secondary school, the Athénée Emile Bockstael, due to anti-Semitic bullying by fellow pupils. She was the last Jewish student at the school.

Several months ago, stones were thrown at a coach carrying Jewish children to Antwerp. Numerous other incidents of this kind attest that the deadly poison of anti-Semitism has seeped into our society.

I know that your community is deeply traumatised at present. I am only too aware of that. I share that trauma.

I know how worried you are for your safety and that of your loved-ones. I know how shocking it must be to walk past soldiers guarding your schools.

I am indignant that our schools have to be turned into bunkers. I am indignant that you are forced to live under constant police protection.

How has it come to this?

Why have we failed to eradicate anti-Semitism sooner?

After the Second World War, European society was rebuilt on the promise "never again". How can we have reached a point where the safety of Jewish citizens is once again under threat?

I will not accept this. No Belgian can accept this.

We know that anti-Semitism is nothing new. We know that it has existed for thousands of years. But we have been able to curb it, even to neutralise it.

For decades, Jewish children have been able to attend school peacefully in Belgium. The ability for children from different backgrounds to be educated together in the same schools is intrinsic to an open and tolerant society.

That is the society we stand for. That is the society we want to defend. We cannot accept this regression.

According to a recent survey of 5,800 people in the 28 countries of the European Union, 76% believe that anti-Semitism has got worse over the past five years. And almost 40% of the Jews questioned in Belgium are considering leaving the country.

The fight against anti-Semitism has therefore failed. There are glaring flaws in our teaching of citizenship and in the transmission of universal values to the younger generations.

I refuse to accept that you feel forced to make that choice. No Belgian should be forced to make such a choice. To paraphrase the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls: "Belgium without the Jews would no longer be Belgium." Europe without the Jews would no longer be Europe.

As an immediate response, the government has raised the alert level and adopted 12 initial measures to counter terrorism and radicalism.

Deploying the army to enhance surveillance of sensitive sites, strengthening the resources of our intelligence and security services, reinforcing the arsenal of criminal-law measures aimed at tackling radicalism and terrorism, and setting up a National Security Council: these are a few of the operational measures already decided upon.

But we must also tackle anti-Semitism in a more targeted and hard-line way. I want to make the fight against anti-Semitism a national cause.

Of course, anti-Semitism is already punishable by law. But in future we intend to apply a zero-tolerance policy in this area. We want the police to record all complaints and we want all complaints to be passed on to the judicial authorities and prosecuted.

In so doing, our intention is not to prioritise some victims over others. When an anti-Semitic act is committed in Belgium, it is not only Jews who are affected. Belgian society as a whole is attacked.

I think also of the famous text by the German pastor Martin Niemöller:

 "If we do not react when a minority is deported, we end up alone when the aggressor turns on us."

First they came for the communists,

and I did not speak out,

because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I did not speak out,

because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I did not speak out,

because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I did not speak out,

because I was not a Catholic.

Then they came for me,

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

An attack on Charlie Hebdo is an attack on freedom of speech, freedom of thought and on the core of our democratic freedoms and values.

An attack on Jews is an attack on difference, an attack on diversity, an attack on tolerance. It is an attack on our whole society.

I want a firm and upright State that acts without faltering and trembling in its mission as a guardian of security and freedom.

A recent report by the Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (CEGESOMA) reminded us of a painful page in our history. Between 1939 and 1942, the Belgian State behaved "compliantly" towards the occupying Germans when called upon to help enforce their abominable policy of persecution of the Jews.

Last year, the Senate unanimously adopted a resolution "solemnly recognising that Belgian authorities collaborated with the occupying Germans in a manner unbefitting democracy."

We are not going to relive the past. We will not allow it! My government and I are fully aware of the gravity of the situation. We are determined to clamp down hard on this resurgence in anti-Semitism. I wish to assure you once again of our absolute solidarity.

Today we form a united front against radicalism, fanaticism and terrorism. We are united and resolute in our opposition to anti-Semitism.

Today we have come together so that tomorrow we never forget. Today we stand tall. And all of us feel Jewish.