Humo Magazine pundit Herman Brusselmans on Sunday wrote, under the headline, “The Middle East is going to explode, World War III is coming,” the following vile antisemitic paragraph:
“…It does not escape me either that a Third World War is coming. The Middle East will explode, with nefarious consequences for the rest of the globe. And all because of a small, fat, bald Jew who bears the ominous name of Bibi Netanyahu, and who for whatever reason wants to ensure that the entire Arab world is wiped out. For every Hamas or Hezbollah fighter who is killed by that Israeli [expletive] army, hundreds of innocent civilians are killed, and we can do nothing but keep repeating that many of them are children and that we here, in the so-called safe West, cannot imagine that the same fate would befall our children. I see an image of a crying and screaming Palestinian boy, completely madly calling for his mother who is lying under the rubble, and I imagine that boy is my own son Roman, and the mother is my own friend Lena, and I get so angry that I want to ram a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I meet. Of course, you always have to remember: 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-out shirt, fake cotton pants, and old sandals, and I feel sorry for him and almost get tears in my eyes, but a moment later I wish him to hell, and yes, that is a mood swing, and my upcoming bundle will unfortunately be full of it. And in the meantime, a pack of cigarettes, which could comfort me, has become much more expensive again.”
Herman Frans Martha Brusselmans, 66, is a Belgian novelist, poet, playwright, and columnist, one of the best-selling authors in Flanders, renowned for his profane language and offensive comedy.
In my youth, I drove through Belgium a lot, but only because it was halfway between Amsterdam and Paris. I liked their beer and chocolate. I suppose back then I didn’t know theirs was a culture of mad hatters. Or at least a culture where mad hatters sell.
I watched Brusselmans on YouTube. I don’t speak Flemish, so I didn’t date embed any of his videos let some irate Jewish Press reader from Antwerp would complain. He strikes me as a kind of Howard Stern, except even America’s favorite shock jock would never share his murder fantasies in public.
The Brussels-based European Jewish Association (EJA) representing hundreds of Jewish communities across the continent, is starting a legal action for incitement to murder against Brusselmans. It is also demanding his suspension and a full public apology from the publisher.
“There is nothing, nothing even remotely funny, ironic or satirical about the psychopathic incitement to murder Jews,” said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the EJA chairman, in a statement on Tuesday.
Rabbi Margolin wrote Humo’s editor-in-chief Bart Veneger: “As editor of a popular magazine, we find it incredible that this got past your desk. With antisemitism and antizionism at record levels in Europe, did you really believe it was appropriate to publish this piece? Jews are world-famous for their humor and satire. This is neither. It is disgusting, dangerous and stupid.”
Are the Flemish known for their humor and satire? I found a Quora entry by a Belgian user who deleted his/her name, titled, “Anyone else that finds most Flemish standup comedians painfully unfunny?”
You know, of course, that Belgium is divided into French speakers in the south and Flems in the north, so this headline may be an attack by a southerner on the northerners. Here goes:
“Most of them are tolerable on TV in talk shows, but 99% of the time when I go to watch them live, I just can’t wrap my head around how these guys ever got famous, except for maybe Xander De Rycke and Wim Helsen. Alex Agnew went viral for some bits 15 years ago and is still riding that wave even though his last four shows were awful. New ones like Jens Dendoncker and Amelie Albrecht are more like dumb comic figures than actual people. Most of them are just plain boring. Who gives these people a stage? I can’t be the only one, right? 15 years ago, I did find Alex Agnew hilarious and he did more for standup than anyone else but his more recent shows were an old man yelling at a cloud. Way too much politics from the viewpoint of a 50-year-old boomer.”
The EJA noted that this is not “the first time that the 66-year-old writer had made such comments. Last December, he accused Israel of using the same methods as the Germans to “destroy an entire race.”
The Transatlantic Institute of the American Jewish Committee tweeted: “We call on the Belgian police to prosecute him and the entire editorial team responsible for this call for murder.”
I don’t. We can’t step on the right to free speech every time an antisemitic boomer soils himself in public. It is much more important that we get to speak than to have some Jew-hating moron shut up.
