“Palestinian president justifies Holocaust; statements widely condemned internationally; Paris withdraws highest award; We [Belgium] have total silence,” Michael Freilich, Belgium MP, representing the New Flemish Alliance party, a Flemish nationalist and conservative group, tweeted during the weekend.
He tagged two Belgium Ministers; Caroline Gennez, Development Cooperation and Urban Policy Minister, and Hadja Lahbib, Foreign Affairs Minister.
Palestijnse president rechtvaardigt Holocaust ️uitspraken internationaal breed veroordeeld️Parijs trekt hoogste onderscheiding in.…️bij ons radiostilte.En dat terwijl @carogennez en @hadjalahbib er anders als de kippen bij zijn over Palestinahttps://t.co/SpOuDhOQFB
— Michael Freilich (@MichaelFreilich) September 8, 2023
Freilich added that while Belgium is quiet, the two ministers “are otherwise completely wrong about Palestine.”
Paris revokes medal
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has revoked the prestigious Medal of the City of Paris awarded to Mahmoud Abbas in 2015, according to an open letter she wrote to the Palestinian Authority president.
In the letter, obtained by Israeli and French media, Hidalgo wrote that she is revoking Abbas’s medal, known in French as La médaille Grand Vermeil de Paris, due to his recent comments in which he expressed a “clear desire to deny the genocide to which the Jewish populations of Europe were victims at the hands of the Nazi regime.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed last week that Ashkenazi Jews stem from Europe, not the Middle East, and were murdered during the Holocaust due to hatred against them for their historic role as money lenders.
“They say that [Nazi leader Adolph] Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews. Not true,” Abbas said.
Freilich has a significant background as a representative of Antwerp’s Jewish community, with strong views on immigration and a supportive stance towards a two-state solution concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.He secured a seat in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in 2019.
TOVAH LAZAROFF and JERUSALEM POST STAFF contributed to this report.
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