The Aalst Carnival in Belgium on Feb. 23 depicted Jews as insects as well as featured participants dressed in Nazi uniforms.
Times of Israel reporter Raphael Aren tweeted photos and video from the carnival, which included a mock Western Wall featuring drawings of Jews with large noses. According to The Jerusalem Post, one of the slogans written on the wall read, “You would also complain if they cut your penis.”
The anti-Semitic carnival in Aalst, Belgium, is underway. Complete with Ultra-Orthodox Jews as flies and a "Wailing Wall" to make fun of those criticizing the parade.
Cc @EmmanuelNahshon @BelgiumMFA @IsraelinBelgium pic.twitter.com/HntDQ9hQZ4— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) February 23, 2020
Here's more pic.twitter.com/wswX86QJtC
— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) February 23, 2020
— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) February 23, 2020
Others in the parade dressed in costumes of fur hats and long noses to depict Jews, according to the BBC.
Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes condemned the parade.
“The use of stereotypes stigmatizing communities and groups based on their origins leads to divisions and endangers our togetherness,” Wilmes said.
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yuval Rotem tweeted, “The infamous event features despicable antisemitic exhibitions. One can’t help but wonder whether lessons from the terrible fate of Belgian Jewry’s history from merely 75 years ago have been learnt at all.”
How low can the #aalstcarnival organizers go? Extremely low, it appears. The infamous event features despicable antisemitic exhibitions.
One can't help but wonder whether lessons from the terrible fate of Belgian Jewry's history from merely 75 years ago have been learnt at all. https://t.co/BTDHslbPRL
— Yuval Rotem 🇮🇱 (@Yuval_Rotem) February 23, 2020
Jewish groups also condemned the parade.
“It is truly appalling to see such #antiSemitic tropes once again, carried out in the Aalst carnival,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted. “At a time when #antiSemitism is on the rise, there should be no tolerance for these types of shameful and hateful displays.”
It is truly appalling to see such #antiSemitic tropes once again, carried out in the Aalst carnival.
At a time when #antiSemitism is on the rise, there should be no tolerance for these types of shameful and hateful displays. https://t.co/dAIIyHonoW— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) February 23, 2020
The Simon Wiesenthal Center similarly tweeted, “No Jew should have anything to do with a city that so fundamentally disrespects Jews and Judaism. We lost our sense of humor and irony when 25,000 Belgian Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Would be nice to hear from [European Union] leadership sitting in Brussels.”
No Jew should have anything to do with a city that so fundamentally disrespects Jews and Judaism. We lost our sense of humor and irony when 25,000 Belgian Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Would be nice to hear from EU leadership sitting in Brussels.
— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) February 23, 2020
American Jewish Committee Transatlantic Institute Director Daniel Schwammenthal called on the EU to condemn and investigate the parade.
“With very few exceptions, Belgian political leaders have been inexplicably silent in the face of this shameful parade,” Schwammenthal said in a statement. “With rising violent anti-Semitism in Europe, public displays of anti-Jewish hatred should have long been tossed on the ash heap of history. In the city of Aalst, apparently, peddling stereotypes of Jews as vermin even deserved increased police protection. This parade was nothing short of an outrage and an offense to any civilized country.”
A spokesperson for Aalst Mayor Christopher D’Haese defended the depictions of Jews as satire and free speech to the BBC, saying: “It’s our parade, our humor, people can do whatever they want. It’s a weekend of freedom of speech.”
The Jerusalem Post argued in a Feb. 24 editorial that the parade was “an absolutely deliberate anti-Semitic assault. There is no way that these tropes and themes were accidentally or unintentionally insulting due to ignorance or a misunderstanding. It takes a very twisted mind to justify such blatant Jew-hatred as legitimate freedom of expression.”
They later added: “Welcome to Europe 2020.”
