All it took was a little bit of graffiti for Belgium’s third-largest city to side with hate.
A group of Israeli frisbee athletes was scheduled to play in an international competition in Ghent last week when a vandal spray-painted antisemitic graffiti near the field: “Boycott Israhell Now!”
Insanely, the town’s mayor and police force reacted by booting the Israeli team from the competition.
Huh? The graffiti didn’t even call for violence, and that it was in English suggests it was more agitprop than threat.
At most, it might be cause for Ghentish citizens to rally and show that the European rhetoric of social tolerance applies to Jews too.
But no: In breaking the “you’re out” news, the police chief allegedly told the team’s coach, “This is your war, not mine.”
More, the town told the coaches and team members they couldn’t even watch the game.
In 2024, people in a major Western European city (a university town, no less!) are being banned from sporting events because they’re Jewish.
The town is embracing a tacit policy of judenrein that’s growing all too common across Europe.
Does Belgium still consider itself a civilized nation?
Note, too, that the Europe-wide athletic association behind the tournament passively cosigned this ugliness, proving yet again that the sentiments that allowed Hitler and his cadres to succeed are still alive and well.
The rationale here — that letting these players compete could somehow compromise the safety of the tournament — is completely hollow: If cops think Jews showing up to play their chosen sport will incite a violent response from locals, then the locals need to be restrained, not the Jews.
Also, that morally monstrous cop is dead wrong in his “not my war” assessment: Safeguarding a peaceful frisbee tournament absolutely is the job of a police force.
And the Israel-Hamas war is nothing less than the battle for civilization against barbarism. And Israel is fighting the good fight.
Belgium, just like it did in World War II, has decided to capitulate to barbarism.
