An Israeli citizen was assaulted and injured by several people in after removing pro-Palestinian stickers in the Belgian city of Bruges. Amnon Ohana, 64, and his daughter Shira, 29, removed an anti-Israel sticker affixed to a wall at the city's train station, a popular tourist destination. After some citizens noticed them removing the sticker, they attacked the father with kicks and punches to the face. Even after the two managed to flee downstairs, one of the assailants continued pursuing the father, knocked him to the floor, and kept kicking him in the head in front of security cameras. The father and daughter's calls for help from passersby went unanswered.
Video: The attack on the Israeli in Blegium
Following the serious assault, Uchanna was taken to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken jaw. He filed a complaint with local police against the assailants, but said he got the impression that the Belgian police were not eager to prosecute them to the full extent of the law, despite part of the attack being caught on security cameras.
A 64 year old Israeli man was attacked while on a tourist visit in @StadBrugge . He was kicked to the head and suffered a fracture to his jaw.
What started as violent discourse has turned in past weeks to actual violence on the streets.
We expect the authorities to denounce… pic.twitter.com/hlKMQb8K12
— Ambassador Idit Rosenzweig-Abu (@IditAbu) May 17, 2024
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, head of the European Jewish Association (EJA), condemned the attack and called on the Bruges police chief to prosecute the assailants to the full extent of the law and classify the assault as an anti-Semitic and racist hate crime.
"It is no longer just verbal violence or spitting but real physical attacks that can end in disaster. Don't wait for us to be murdered to understand that you must act more decisively against the troublemakers. Today it is against Jews and tomorrow the incited mob will attack anyone who looks western in their eyes" Rabbi Margolin warned. "It cannot be that a Western country claiming to be a state of law like Belgium will not act for the immediate arrest of the anti-Semitic assailants and refrain from immediate enforcement to prosecute them to the full severity of the law," the rabbi added.
