Belgium Jews reportedly voted for Europe's most racist party Vlaams Belang. Some of Jews, who were at the forefront on fights against racism, surprised the entire world by voting for Europe's most powerful racist party at the recent local elections in Belgium.
Most of devout Jews living in Anwers claimed that they were scared by the increasing Muslim population and believe that Vlaams Belang would protect them. Chairman of the Belgium Zionist Organization, Francis Weitz, on the other hand, lashed out against Jews who had voted for the racist party.
The International Herald Tribune (IHT) reported that Jews were not concerned about supporting Vlaams Belang, which cooperated with Nazis in the past. Henri Rosenberg, a Jewish theologian and lawyer, in an interview with IHT claimed that Muslim beliefs were not founded on the correct values.
Rosenberg is the son of a Jewish family who had immigrated from Poland during the war and had lost both his grandfathers and grandmothers in Nazi concentration camps. Despite all this, he voted for Vlaams Belang. Jewish businessmen control most of the diamond trade in Anwers one of the largest three diamond exchanges in the world.
The Belgium Zionist Organization resented the fact that a large majority of Jews voted for a racist party. Chairman of the organization and diamond trader Francis Weitz, in a statement to Zaman,, suggested the Jewish support for the racist party was "unfortunate". Weitz also advocated that only a small section of the Anwers Jews voted for the Vlaams Belang: "This was a huge mistake. Nazism exists in the history of the Vlaams party. It is a racist and fascist party. Jews do not seem to be aware of whom they voted for. We should explain to these Jews that fascism does not care about the limits of nation and race."
Weitz drew attention to the fact that any political party holding any racist activities against Muslims today would also demand the expulsion of Jews from the country tomorrow. A former Belgium senator of Turkish origin Meryem Kacar was among the politicians who worked for the closure of Vlaams Belang during and after her term in office. Emphasizing that all Jews in Anwers did not support the racist party, Kacar claimed that relations between the two groups was strained in the past.