Jewish & World News

A Belgian court convicted a man who intentionally drove his car into a group of Jews of intimidation but cleared him of attempted murder. According to the Belga news agency, the court on Friday sentenced the 42-year-old man from Beveren to 12 months in jail and a $780 fine for driving his car while under the influence of alcohol into a group of Jews in Antwerp during the Passover holiday last year. On April 12 2012, the man drove his car onto the sidewalk and into a group of five young Orthodox Jews, who jumped out of the way before he could hit them. The man, who was not named in the Belga report and in other Belgian media, was charged with attempted murder but the judge determined he only wanted to “intimidate” the group. Just before the incident, he made an obscene gesture at an Orthodox Jew he passed by on the street and cursed a number of other Jews, Belga reported. The man’s lawyer said in court that he had “a serious drinking problem.” JTA

Jewish emergency workers in Antwerp held a drill simulating a deadly bombing at a Jewish school.  The drill was held on Sunday at a building in the city’s center. Participants included emergency response teams from Hatzolah, the local Jewish ambulance service; Zaka, an Israel-based victim identification group; and Shmira, the community’s security service. Chaverim, whose members provide non-medical assistance, was in charge of logistics.

Antwerp Mayor Patrick Janssens announced plans to build a monument to commemorate the Belgian city's Jews murdered in the Holocaust. "It is unacceptable that unlike other European cities, the municipality of Antwerp has never erected a single monument in memory of the history" of the Holocaust, Janssens said Wednesday at a City Hall ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the first deportation of Antwerp's Jews.

The mayor of Brussels has agreed to change the text of an invitation to a Holocaust memorial event after Jewish groups said it contained historical falsehoods. The office of Mayor Freddy Thielemans last week sent out an invitation to a "ceremony of official recognition of the participation of local authorities appointed by the occupying power during World War II, in the deportation of citizens of Brussels."

The sort of anti-Semitic attacks that took place in Europe in 1938 are occurring here today, Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein told European dignitaries and Jewish leaders on Thursday night. “A brick hurled at a Jewish shop. A Molotov cocktail at a rabbi’s house. A Jewish girl attacked at school. These aren’t memories of Europe in 1938, but headlines in 2011,” Edelstein said in a speech at a ceremony in Belgium . Edelstein represented Israel at an event celebrating Belgium ’s chairmanship of the intergovernmental Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education. Belgium will replace the Netherlands as the task force’s leader in March. Under Belgium ’s chairmanship, the task force is to be transformed and renamed the International Holocaust Remembrance Organization. Some 300 people attended the ceremony in Mechelen where Edelstein spoke last week. “My concern is the escapism that occurs in these ceremonies,” Edelstein told The Jerusale...

Antwerp, Belgium - Terrorist suspects arrested two weeks ago in Belgium and Holland  planned to target the Jewish community with a major terror attack, a Jewish magazine said, quoting information obtained by a Dutch newspaper from judicial sources.

An indictment was filed in Belgium Wednesday calling for various Israeli officials including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Opposition leader Tzipi Livni, and former prime minister Ehud Olmert be tried for war crimes, reported Hungarian News Agency MTI.

Brussels - The leader of a Flemish nationalist political party who secured a landslide victory in early parliamentary elections in Belgium on Sunday had sparked a controversy with the Jewish community three years ago when he criticized official apologies by Antwerp’s Mayor for the role of Belgians in the deportation of Jews during WWII.

Belgium's lower house of parliament has voted for a law that would ban women from wearing the full Islamic face veil in public. The law would ban any clothing that obscures the identity of the wearer in places like parks and on the street. No-one voted against it.

Brussels, Belgium - Two passenger trains in Belgium have collided head-on near the capital, Brussels, with the latest reports of the death toll ranging from 10 to 25. Railway officials said the trains collided during the morning rush hour at Halle, south-west of Brussels. The national railway said 25 people had died. Other officials said there had been at least 10 deaths. Belgian media said the trains collided in snowy conditions. Trains to southern Belgium and beyond have been cancelled. The trains collided in the commuter town around 0830 local time (0730GMT) on Monday. Television pictures showed carriages pushed up at an angle or leaning to the side from the force of the crash. Witnesses said people were thrown around violently inside the trains with one passenger describing the "carriages compacted together" by the collision. Emergency workers said there was considerable damage to the overhead power lines at the station in Buizingen, the district of Halle wher...