BRUSSELS — The Criminal Court of Ghent on Tuesday cited freedom of speech in acquitting Flemish best-selling author Herman Brusselmans on charges of antisemitism and incitement to hatred.
“The sharp, critical and polemical writing style of the defendant in the isolated satirical quotes from the various columns does not constitute criminal conduct,” the court wrote in a statement.
Last summer, Brusselmans sparked outrage among some Jewish communities with his column published in Belgian humor magazine Humo, which was subsequently removed from the website.
The Belgian author wrote that when he saw the image of a Palestinian boy screaming for his mother beneath rubble of a building, he imagined his son and wife in the same situation and “became so enraged that I want to ram a pointed knife straight down the throat of every Jew I meet.”
The court acknowledged that “certain members of the Jewish community may have been offended by some sentences in a few columns,” but that “the author’s expressions of opinion are protected by the right to freedom of expression” as set out by the Belgian constitution.
“The texts also do not show that the defendant wanted to incite hatred and violence against members of the Jewish community, or that he wanted to grossly minimize the Holocaust. He only wanted to present an opinion piece or a value judgment in his well-known writing style,” the court continued.
Michel Kotek, the chairman of the Jewish Information and Documentation Centre, called the ruling “a disgrace to the Belgian judiciary.”
The president of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, condemned the decision.
“By issuing such a verdict, the Belgian judiciary sends a dangerous message: incitement to murder and hatred can be reinterpreted, excused, and ultimately legitimized — at least when the targets are Jews,” he told the European Jewish Press.
Brusselmans, who is known for his controversial and provocative writing, said he was “happy that I was proven right on all counts.”
When asked whether he would write the column again, Brusselmans replied: “I write a column every week. I may adapt, I may not. But I am careful.”
Several other legal proceedings are pending against the writer in connection with the same column.