Flemish Author Condemned for Antisemitic Death Threats

Prominent Flemish author Herman Brusselmans has gained international notoriety and opprobrium since he wrote a column for Belgian weekly Humo in which he let his emotions run wild in response to the atrocities in the war in Gaza. Brusselmans wrote that he would like to stab any random Jew he met on the street with a pointed knife in the throat. “I see an image of a crying and screaming Palestinian boy all out of his mind calling for his mother lying under the rubble, and I imagine that the boy is my own son Roman, and the mother my own friend Lena, and I become so enraged that I want to ram a pointed knife loose down the throat of every Jew I meet. Of course, you always have to think: not every Jew is a murderous bastard, and to give shape to that thought I imagine an elderly Jewish man shuffling down my own street, dressed in a washed-up shirt, fake cotton trousers and old sandals, and I feel sorry for him and almost get tears in my eyes, but moments later I wish him to hell”. In doing so, he made every Belgian Jew responsible for Israel's war effort, which is a classic antisemitic position. After the European Jewish Association (EJA) announced it would file a complaint against Brusselmans, the editors of the weekly magazine came up with an explanation that this was just satire and that Brusselmans had not meant it literally. The response completely ignored the antisemitic character of the column.

The columnist also responded to the outcry, saying it was all "complete and utter bullshit" and it was really just an innocent metaphor. "The image of wanting to stab a pointed knife in the throat is a metaphorical image of all kinds of ways to take revenge. In my case, that is through writing. It is in no way incitement to murder. As if I would ever do that..." He also wrote: “Why on earth is the Jewish community so easily offended when they themselves are in the process of murdering an entire people? They could desperately use some introspection. My faith in the whole Jewish culture, I have been a fan of directors like Woody Allen for a long time, has meanwhile taken a severe blow.”

Double standards

Brusselmans' capacity for empathy is clearly limited to the fate of Palestinians. With regard to the victims of the October 7 pogrom, he remains as silent as a grave. Meanwhile, the Belgian organization against discrimination UNIA has joined the complaint against the writer. "There is already a certain feeling of insecurity among the Jewish community. Brusselmans' statements further fuel the hostility," a spokesperson of UNIA said.

This was not the first time that Brusselmans has broken hate speech boundaries. In December, he had already gone on a rampage. At the time, he compared the actions of the Israelis to those of the Nazis. "Israel is using the same methods to destroy an entire race as the Germans did at the time," he said. He also claimed that the media and banks in the United States are all owned by Israelis (apparently he did not dare to use the word Jews at the time). "[T]he big money in America is in the portfolios of Israelis resident in the US. The super companies are owned by Israelis, the big banks, the secret services, the real estate holdings and practically the entire culture." Another trademark delusion of antisemites.

Echoes of Céline?

Some commentators wondered whether Brusselmans had now followed in the footsteps of the French antisemitic writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline and whether this was simply a new literary stylistic device. Céline wrote three rabid antisemitic pamphlets before and during the Second World War and are still considered to be a stain on his reputation. This argument was also made by Humo's deputy editor-in-chief: "Herman Brusselmans is a celebrated and respected writer who likes to curse and scold in his many books and texts, eagerly using hyperbolas and obscene language. Even more than other columns, therefore, this should be judged by literary rather than journalistic standards." Nevertheless, the deputy editor-in-chief later apologized and the column was removed from the website of the weekly.

Antisemitic metaphors as a groundbreaking form of literature, in other words. Unfortunately for Brusselmans and the editors of Humo, another novelist and columnist of the weekly disagreed. Dutch writer of Jewish descent Arnon Grunberg felt that a limit had been reached with the column and canceled his cooperation with the magazine with immediate effect. "I am in favor of the broadest possible conception of freedom of expression. I would defend the right of neo-Nazis to demonstrate, but that does not mean I have to march in the demonstration. You are free to downplay and welcome revisionism in your magazine, but that does not mean I wish to publish alongside the revisionist. [...] There is a lower limit, I did not think I would ever write this down, and it has been reached. My participation in your weekly magazine, my participation in your satirical community is hereby canceled, with immediate effect as it is then called."

Playing the victim

Meanwhile, Brusselmans had declared himself the victim of the whole affair. So in this respect, too, he himself is rather reminiscent of Céline. In a new column, he wrote: "You can get agitated, feel hurt, be permeated by rage, fall prey to despair, and you had better suffer this within the four walls of your own biotope and, except for your loved ones, not bother anyone with it, because if you do, you will be pulverized by scorn, defeated by incomprehension, and pushed into a corner where you never belonged." So there is no question of any self-criticism. In a column back in December, he wrote: "It is not inconceivable that someone, anyone, against his nature, becomes an antisemite." So, once again, it is the Jews who seem to incite antisemitism. The prosecutor's office spokesperson confirmed that it is investigating the column.