Attack synagogue Liège
- Redactie / Editors
- Mar 19
- 3 min read
During the night of March 8 to 9, an attack took place on the synagogue in Liège on Léon Frédéricq Street. According to the synagogue’s rabbi, Joshua Nejman, it is still too early to draw conclusions since the motive behind the attack has not yet been established. The Bishop of Liège immediately condemned the explosion at the synagogue (Jewish religious institution), stating that the situation in the Middle East can never justify creating tensions between religious communities here in Europe.
On the morning following the attack, Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) and Minister of the Interior Bernard Quintin strongly condemned the attack on the synagogue in Liège and described it as an antisemitic act. It may still be premature to reach that conclusion, but there is no denying that the migration of tens of millions of people, many from the Islamic world, toward the democratic West has contributed to growing tensions between communities in Europe, with Jewish citizens often among the first victims.
However, the Jewish community will not be the only one affected. In France, priests and school teachers have been murdered by Islamist extremists in recent years, and Jewish institutions and buildings, including schools, now require constant security. In the United Kingdom, an attack last October on visitors to a synagogue in Manchester left three people dead. Further afield, in Australia, another Western democracy with a large migrant population, an attack in December on the Jewish community at Bondi Beach near Sydney resulted in 15 deaths. Since Hamas, an Iranian proxy, launched its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in the Middle East, the number of attacks in Europe has continued to rise. Tensions remain high even now that the war in Gaza has ended.
U.S. Ambassador Bill White immediately traveled the same morning to the synagogue in Liège to express support on behalf of the United States government. In a statement, he said: “Antisemitism is on the rise in America and Europe,” while standing alongside Liège mayor Willy Demeyer of the Socialist Party.
In this respect, Ambassador White is correct. In the United States, there have already been recent attacks against Jewish communities in cities such as Denver, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C., in addition to violent antisemitic protests at several universities across the country.
Paul Magnette, chairman of the Socialist Party (PS), issued a statement saying that “violence is never the solution” and calling for “solidarity.” However, he did not specifically mention solidarity with Belgium’s Jewish community. Yet it is precisely that community that deserves explicit support at a time like this.
Ralph Pais of the Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID) was also present at the scene. Last December, Pais warned that antisemitic incidents, including verbal and physical aggression, intimidation, and graffiti, occur daily in Belgium, and that the Jewish community continues to suffer the consequences.
According to critics, previous governments pursued a restrictive anti-Israel policy while at the same time granting collective asylum to Palestinians, contributing to a significant rise in antisemitic tensions in Belgium. The country has already experienced the devastating terrorist attacks in Brussels and Zaventem in 2016, and the Bataclan attack in Paris also had links to networks based in Brussels.
The new government led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever has pledged to make Belgium safer. Asylum procedures are being tightened, and Palestinians will no longer receive collective asylum status as they did under previous governments.
Belgium and other European countries may now need to cooperate more closely to strengthen the protection of Europe’s external borders against further mass migration. Over the past four decades, many argue that Western Europe has increasingly struggled with problems related to terrorism and crime. After the Second World War, Europe vowed that such tragedies would never happen again. Yet today, many feel that the continent is struggling to safeguard its own security and social cohesion.
In countries in the Middle East that aim to modernise, such as the United Arab Emirates, there is no place for extremist interpretations of Islam. Europe, the cradle of democracy and freedom, must likewise remain vigilant against extremism of any kind.
If European societies fail to address migration, terrorism, and integration through effective legislation and enforcement, the consequences for the future of Western Europe, and Belgium in particular, could be severe. For too long, critics argue, governments have underestimated the scale of the problem.
This attack on the synagogue in Liège is again a wake-up call. It is therefore essential that we do everything possible to preserve our free, democratic, and liberal societies before it is too late.
Image credits:
Photo by Andrea Morales Kalamar via unsplash
Video published by the Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID) via Social Media
