‘It’s got much worse’: Jewish people in Belgium say friends have packed bags ready to flee amid spike in antisemitism
A Holocaust survivor in Belgium says she knows Jewish people who have packed their bags ready to flee amid a spike in antisemitism.
Regina Sluszny, 84, from Antwerp, says incidents have rocketed since the outbreak of the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Authorities in the city, which has the largest Hasidic Jewish population in Europe, say they received 90 reports of antisemitism in the first six weeks following the 7 October Hamas attacks last year.
Holocaust survivor Regina Sluszny
“In Antwerp, the Jews are much more visible with these black coats and big hats, and bunches of boys go by, and they just try to throw the hat on the floor, or when they drive with the bicycle, they try to push them from the bicycle,” Ms Sluszny says.
“We really feel it – that it’s much, much worse than it was before.”
Ms Sluszny says some people are so scared, they’ve packed bags in case they have to flee.
“People who had family who didn’t come back from Auschwitz, they are very scared. They think it’s going to start again.”
Antwerp has the largest Hasidic Jewish population in Europe
Rabbi Chaim Parnas supports 700 families at his synagogue in Antwerp – but in the last five months he says life in the Jewish community has changed.
“Since 7 October, there is a heightened police presence in this whole neighbourhood,” he says.
“It’s something you feel as you walk around the streets. You actually see the police much more often.”
Rabbi Chaim Parnas
He says some people have asked if they can remove the traditional mezuzah from their doors
Belgium, like much of Europe, has seen a spike in antisemitism linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict, leaving many Jews feeling afraid.
The rabbi says some people have asked if they can remove the traditional mezuzah from their doors so that people walking past can’t identify Jewish homes.
He understands the fear. He says slurs and intimidation are increasingly common.
“I don’t know why I have to be afraid to walk down the university corridor and someone’s going to shout ‘Dirty Jew’.
“But for some reason that’s legitimate as long as I’m Jewish. I became part of the conflict, and I am a target for those who are anti-Israel,” he says.
The attacks aren’t just verbal, dozens of Jewish graves were desecrated in Charleroi cemetery in southern Belgium in November.
Dozens of Jewish graves were desecrated in Charleroi cemetery in southern Belgium in November
Beatings, assaults and Holocaust denial have also been reported, according to human rights group the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (UNIA).
One teenager, Daniel, says he was chased because he is Jewish.
“A couple of months ago, I went out with a friend, and we were chased and kids were screaming, ‘You want to die? We’ll kill you’,” he says.
The teenager says kids from different backgrounds used to happily hang out together in the park, but now Jewish children risk being attacked.
He’s been threatened and chased with a razor.
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‘People shouted that they will kill me’
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He says he now covers his customary kippah cap when he goes out to avoid drawing attention to himself.
As a result of the tension, security has been stepped up outside schools and synagogues and is tightened further during bar mitzvahs, when nearby streets are cleared of cars to avoid the possibility of bomb attacks.
“There’s a lot more security in the school and there are always police outside in case something happens,” Daniel says.
“I don’t think it’s a normal thing that outside of school there should always be police and extra security for protection.”
Belgium isn’t alone in seeing a rise in antisemitism – France, Germany, Italy and the UK are also tackling an increase in cases as shockwaves from the war in the Middle East open divisions in Europe.
The Syrian presidency has announced it’s assembling a special taskforce to try to stop nearly a week of sectarian clashes in the southern Druze city of Sweida.
The presidency called for restraint on all sides and said it is making strenuous efforts to “stop the fighting and curb the violations that threaten the security of the citizens and the safety of society”.
By early Saturday morning, a ceasefire had been confirmed by the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who posted on X that Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire supported by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The post went on to state that this agreement had the support of “Turkey, Jordan and its neighbours” and called upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunni factions to put down their arms.
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford reports from the road leading to Sweida, the city that has become the epicentre of Syria’s sectarian violence.
For the past 24 hours, we’ve watched as Syria‘s multiple Arab tribes began mobilising in the Sweida province to help defend their Bedouin brethren.
Thousands travelled from multiple different Syrian areas and had reached the edge of Sweida city by Friday nightfall after a day of almost non-stop violent clashes and killings.
“We have come to protect the [Arab] Bedouin women and children who are being terrorised by the Druze,” they told us.
Arab fighters said they had come to protect the Bedouin women and children
Fighters at a petrol station
Every shop and every home in the streets leading up to Sweida city has been burned or ransacked, the contents destroyed or looted.
We saw tribal fighters loading the back of pickup trucks and driving away from the city with vehicles packed with looted goods from Druze homes.
Shops and homes leading up to Sweida city have been burned or ransacked
Several videos posted online showed violence against the Druze, including one where tribal fighters force three men to throw themselves off a high-rise balcony and are seen being shot as they do so.
Doctors at the nearby community hospital in Buser al Harir said there had been a constant stream of casualties being brought in. As we watched, another dead fighter was carried out of an ambulance.
The medics estimated there had been more than 600 dead in their area alone. “The youngest child who was killed was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby,” one doctor told us.
Doctors said there had been a constant stream of casualties due to violence
The violence is the most dangerous outbreak of sectarian clashes since the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime last December – and the most serious challenge for the new leader to navigate.
The newly brokered deal is aimed at ending the sectarian killings and restoring some sort of stability in a country which is emerging from more than a decade of civil war.
Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.
Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.
As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.
The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.
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Why is Israel bombing Syria?
After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.
He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.
It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.
It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.
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At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.
A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.
The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).
Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.
The training centre in east LA. Pic: NBC Los Angeles
Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”
California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.
“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.
Media and law enforcement officials near the explosion site. Pic: AP
The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.
“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.
“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
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