Nazi symbols were found on two personalised licence plates in Belgium, a country that has not yet made it illegal to have fascist symbols in public places.
Two individualised license plates with Nazi references were spotted in Belgium, reports The Jerusalem Post.
One of the antisemitic license plates had “HH-88” on it, which refers to the Nazi salute and the numerical code for the Nazi phrase. The other had ”1-RAS-88”, a reference to “Een ras”, translating to “one race.”
The personalised license plates had to have been approved by Belgium’s Department of Vehicles Registration; in Belgium, it is still not legally prohibited to use Nazi symbols in public places.
The UNIA, formerly the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Discrimination, called on the Federal Government to address these incidents, as their attempt to deregister the licence plates failed; when they contacted the DIV with the deregistration request, they were refused, with the explanation that “88” on the licence plate referred to the year the owner of the vehicle was born. The owner has stated to the DIV that there was nothing offensive in it at all.
”Such a response seems insufficient, especially in view of the expressly chosen combination of ‘Een Ras’ ‘88’ and ‘HH’,” UNIA said.
“The ‘1-RAS-88’ plate combines both racist hatred and antisemitic references,” UNIA claims. “It is highly unlikely that this choice of the plate was a coincidence, especially considering the €1,000 fee that the person paid for.”
The Minister of Mobility, George Gilkinet, said the results were shocking. Yet, the current Belgian legislation does not allow the cancellation of licence plates already in circulation, and there is nothing the authorities can do.
Photo credit: The Brussels Times
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