An Israeli tourist had his jaw broken in a physical assault by a Bruges mob after he and his daughter removed an anti-Israel sticker in a Belgium train station on Friday, according to the European Jewish Association and Israeli Embassy in Belgium.
After a group of anti-Israel activists saw 64-year-old Amnon Ohana and his 29-year-old daughter Shira had removing a sticker in a Bruges train station, the activists punched and kicked Ohana.
The Israeli tourists fled to a lower floor, but were reportedly pursued, according to the EJA. Ohana was beaten to the ground, and the attack continued.
Ohana was taken to the hospital, and he was diagnosed with a broken jaw.
Police ignore the incident
The EJA said that Ohana has filed a complaint to the Bruges Police, but the tourist told them that the police “doesn't want to deal with them" despite having filmed part of the incident themselves and presumably by train station security cameras.
“We expect the authorities to denounce this violence in the strongest terms possible. And we expect the police to find and press charges against this man,” Israeli ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg Idit Rosenzweig-Abu wrote on social media. “What started as violent discourse has turned in past weeks to actual violence on the streets.”
EJA chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin also condemned the attack and called on the Belgian police to investigate the attackers and define the assault as an antisemitic and racism hate crime. He said that a western country with rule of law could not be indifferent to the necessity of law enforcement against the mob.
"It is no longer just verbal violence or spitting but real physical attacks that can end in disaster,” said Margolin. “Don't wait for us to be murdered to understand that you must act more decisively against the troublemakers. Today it is against Jews and tomorrow the incited mob will attack anyone who looks western in their eyes.”