Belgium’s parliament is set to debate a disturbing public performance in Brussels that simulated the mass murder of Jewish civilians. Staged during the so-called “Resistance Festival” in the Saint-Gilles district, the event featured actors dressed in keffiyehs pretending to gun down unarmed people, with some participants reportedly wearing Belgian military uniforms. The reenactment, which many likened to the 7 October Hamas massacre in Israel, was set to chants of “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea” — slogans widely viewed as calls for Israel’s destruction, reports Israel Hayom.
The spectacle triggered immediate condemnation. Belgium’s Defence Minister Theo Francken ordered a formal investigation, warning: “It is unacceptable to exploit military symbols for terror propaganda. If any Defence Ministry personnel were involved, there will be consequences.”
Footage of the event, first published by Israel Hayom, showed performers waving Palestinian flags and ending the act with a mock victory salute using wooden rifles. The display was reportedly organised by Samidoun, a group with known links to extremist and anti-Israel activity.
Israel’s Ambassador to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, reacted with disbelief: “At first I couldn’t believe something like this could be filmed in Brussels. But it’s real. Blood and bodies on the ground. A reenactment of the 7 October massacre. Organised by none other than the Samidoun organisation. How is this happening in Belgium?”
Initially approved by the municipality under the guise of “freedom of expression,” the performance prompted Saint-Gilles’ mayor to launch a police and internal inquiry. “Several scenes can be interpreted as incitement to violence and glorification of terrorism,” he later admitted. “Our municipality cannot be a venue for events that incite hatred.”
Condemnation also came from opposition MP Sam Van Rooy of the Vlaams Belang party, who shared the video online and called the mayor’s reaction “too little, too late.” Van Rooy warned of Belgium’s alarming drift toward 1930s-style antisemitism, blaming unchecked immigration and political complacency. “Some Middle Eastern immigrants believe Muslim extremists’ hatred of Jews and the West is justified,” he told Israel Hayom. “Even when perpetrators are caught, the penalties are laughable.”
Describing a climate where antisemitic violence goes unpunished, particularly in Antwerp, Van Rooy stated, “I shudder to think what would have happened if a visibly Jewish person had walked through that square during the performance.” He added, “If this continues, the 2030s will look like the 1930s. A society where Jews can be attacked while calls to burn and kill them are made publicly without consequence will take us back a hundred years, to a dark chapter Europe must never revisit.”
The controversy has become a flashpoint in Belgium’s ongoing struggle to confront rising antisemitism, Islamist extremism, and the limits of free expression in public life.
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