Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in reported antisemitic incidents, mainly on social media, but a reduce in antisemitism in general in society and reduce in physical attacks on Jews.
Legal framework: Anti-Racism Law (1981), Negationism Law (1995), Anti-Discrimination Act (2007), Penal Code The legal framework governing Judaism in Belgium predates the nation's independence in 1830, originating from the Napoleonic "Organic Decrees" of 1808. These decrees integrate Jewish citizens into the civil state while regulating religious practice.
Upon the formation of the Belgian state, the Belgian Constitution of 1831, arguably the most progressive constitution in Europe, codified a unique model of "recognized religions." Under Articles 19 and 21, the state guarantees freedom of worship. Uniquely, Article 181 mandates that the salaries and pensions of ministers of recognized religions are paid by the federal government. This institutional recognition provides Jewish communities, besides financial support, with significant legal standing.
The Law of March 4, 1870, further solidified this by providing public funds for the maintenance of synagogues, ensuring that Jewish cultural and religious heritage was preserved as a public good.
Belgium continued its role as a pioneer in establishing specific legal frameworks to combat racism and antisemitism. Belgium's 1981 Anti-Racism Law (the Moureaux Law) is often cited as a landmark piece of legislation because it is one of the most robust legal shields against, and one of the first in the world to specifically criminalize, incitement to hatred and discrimination based on "so-called race," religion, descent, or origin.
The law was revolutionary for its time because it moved beyond general civil protections and introduced criminal penalties for: Inciting discrimination, hatred, or violence against a person or group, belonging to an organization that promotes or practices discrimination or segregation and discriminating in the provision of goods or services (e.g., housing or employment).
Belgium expanded this legal framework in 1995 to combat the denial of the Holocaust and promote racial equality. While many countries now have similar laws, Belgium's 1995 Negationism Law legislation was an equally a landmark moment for European human rights law. Belgium was one of the first countries to specifically criminalize "negationism"—the public denial or gross minimization of the Holocaust. It made it illegal to publicly "deny, play down, justify or approve of the genocide committed by the German National Socialist regime during the Second World War." Belgium's law is distinctive, amongst others, because it was passed with unanimous support across the political spectrum (194 votes in favor, 0 against in the Chamber of Representatives). It set a rigorous legal standard for what constitutes "gross minimization" and served as a model for subsequent EU-wide directives.
This was followed by the General Anti-Discrimination Act (2007), which broadened the scope of protection to 19 characteristics, including religious or philosophical conviction and social origin, and which applies to antisemitic discrimination.
2022–2026 reforms and Penal Code updates Recent legislative reforms have further tightened the framework: Expanded Protection: new laws (2022, 2023) granted legal recognition to discrimination based on a perceived characteristic (e.g., being targeted because one is thought to be Jewish) and discrimination by association. Under the Criminal Code (2024), a "general clause for aggravating circumstances" was implemented. This allows judges to double the minimum penalties for crimes—such as harassment, assault, or non-assistance—when the motive is proven to be hatred, contempt, or hostility based on the victim's origin or religion.
Government policy and action plans Belgium addresses antisemitism through an integrated approach, incorporating specific measures into broader national and regional, and local anti-racism and antisemitism frameworks. Central to this is the Inter-federal Coordination Mechanism for Combating Antisemitism. This body coordinates policy between federal, regional, and community authorities and is supported by a dedicated Anti-Semitism Monitoring Unit within the Federal Public Service (FPS) Justice.
At the federal level, antisemitism is a core component of the National Action Plan against Racism (NAPAR), with successive plans spanning 2021–2024 and 2025–2029. These plans focus on improving the registration of hate crimes and enhancing the judicial response to antisemitic speech. Additionally, locally there are specific action plans. For instance, the City of Brussels maintains its own Action Plan against Racism and Antisemitism, which emphasizes civil servant training and educational outreach.
High Commissioner / Coordinator for Antisemitism As of 2026, Belgium manages its fight against antisemitism through the Interministerial Coordination Committee on the Fight against Antisemitism. The current official, the national coordinator for the fight against antisemitism, overseeing these efforts at the federal level is Lieve Van den Berghe. Her appointment was part of a broader European effort to ensure every member state has a dedicated official to implement the "EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life."
Katharina von Schnurbein is the European Commission's Coordinator on combating antisemitism, based in Brussels, who works closely with national coordinators like Van den Berghe.
Unia, is the independent public institution that promotes equality and combats discrimination, including antisemitism. It serves as a knowledge and expertise centre, monitors antisemitism, publishes annual reports with analyses and recommendations on antisemitism in Belgium, negotiates and takes legal action when deemed needed.
Legal prosecutions and convictions, notable controversies The Anti-Racism Law and Negationism Law remain key tools in combating antisemitism, with ongoing prosecutions and convictions underscoring Belgium's clear commitment to addressing antisemitism and historical revisionism.
Roeland Raes, a co-founder of Vlaams Blok and a prominent figure in Vlaams Belang, was convicted of negationism in 2010 for spreading Holocaust denial theories.
Karel Dillen, key founder and longtime president of the Vlaams Blok, was associated with Holocaust denial literature, including translating a negationist pamphlet by Maurice Bardèche in 1951, but never formally convicted for antisemitism or negationism.
Publisher Siegfried Verbeke was convicted in 2005 under the Negationism Law for Holocaust denial. Laurent Louis, former independent MP, was convicted in 2015 for blog posts that minimized the Holocaust.
, a Flemish nationalist youth group, faced prosecution in 2021 for violations of the Anti-Racism Act, Negationism Act, and Arms Act after investigations revealed its members shared antisemitic, racist, and violent content in chat groups. The content included the glorification of the Third Reich, jokes regarding the Holocaust and gas chambers, and the promotion of "great replacement" conspiracy theories. In March 2024, seven defendants, including leader and former MP Dries Van Langenhove and a Vlaams Belang employee in the European Parliament -further highlighting the links between the radical youth movement and far-right politics in Belgium, were convicted. The prosecution argued that the group functioned as a structured organization intended to incite hatred and discrimination. Evidence presented in court highlighted that the antisemitic content was not merely "edgy humor," as claimed by the defense, but part of a systematic effort to normalize extremist ideologies. The court's ruling emphasized that the denial and trivialization of the Holocaust within the group's communications constituted a direct threat to the public order and the dignity of the Jewish community. Following the verdict, the Coordination Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium (CCOJB) welcomed the decision as a landmark victory against the dissemination of antisemitic hate speech in the digital sphere.
In August 2019, the writer Dimitri Verhulst quoted Jewish artist Serge Gainsbourg in a polemic in the newspaper De Morgen that "Being Jewish is not a religion. No religion gives people noses like that.". He also said "talking to the Chosen is difficult". De Morgen's editor-in-chief defended Verhulst on the basis that the op-ed was "a harsh criticism on Israel's politics towards the Palestinian people." Verhulst was not sued or prosecuted.
In August 2024, Belgian novelist Herman Brusselmans published a controversial column in the satirical section of the Dutch-language magazine Humo in relation to rising tension from, and his anger toward the civilian casualties in the Gaza war, where he wrote, "I see an image of a crying and screaming Palestinian boy who is completely out of his mind calling for his mother lying under the rubble, and I imagine that that boy is my own son Roman, and the mother is my own friend Lena, and I get so furious that I want to ram a pointed knife through 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 shirt, fake cotton pants and old sandals." The column was condemned by the head of the Brussels office of B'nai B'rith International as a "blatant incitement to violence against Jews, in one of Belgium's largest magazines." The Brussels-based European Jewish Association (EJA), representing hundreds of Jewish communities across the continent, declared "to have started legal actions against Brusselmans' genocidal threats".
During the ensuing legal proceedings, the accusing parties remained completely absent from the court hearings and all key court dates. During the debates about the complaint, it became clear that both parties condemn antisemitism. In October 2024, the public prosecutor's office decided not to pursue criminal charges. The investigation concluded that the column fell under the protection of freedom of expression and was a literary/satirical work and not a targeted call for violence. The court rulings officially released Brusselmans from all accusations of incitement to hatred, violence, or discrimination, emphasizing that while the language was "offensive and shocking," it did not constitute a crime under Belgian law.
Incidents: 1980s through early 2000s The 1980s were witnessed a number of anti-Jewish attacks. The most notorious werethe 1980 Antwerp summer camp attack on families waiting with their children for a bus that would carry them to a Jewish summer camp, and the 1981 Antwerp bombing in which three people were killed and over 100 wounded. However, none of the perpetrators of these attacks were Belgian.
In April 2002, the facade of the Charleroi synagogue was sprayed with bullets. In 2003 a 33-year-old man of Moroccan descent parked a car alongside the synagogue of Charleroi, poured gasoline over the car, and set it alight in an attempt to destroy the synagogue. Authorities investigated it as possible terrorism. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt condemned the attack but stated that he saw no need to raise security around Jewish institutions in Belgium. Firefighters were able to douse the fire before it destroyed the building.
Incidents: 2012-2022