Man sentenced for antisemitic death threats sent to Belgian Jewish politician
Brussels court handed down time to unnamed individual after his hateful message to Viviane Teitelbaum.
A criminal court in Brussels sentenced a man to two years in prison for emailing death threats to a Jewish city alderman.
The man, who was not named in the Belgian media in reports about his sentencing Friday, sent the email in 2018 to Viviane Teitelbaum.
“You have 48 hours to ask your Zionist friends from Isra-hell to end their involvement in the conflict in Yemen,” the email said.
It contained various conspiracy theories, ranging from the involvement of Mossad in the 2014 slaying by a jihadist of four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium to claims that Jewish diamond dealers in Belgium are funding Israel.
Two days later, the man wrote that Teitelbaum’s time is “over” and that she will “pay with one life for the lives of all the children you have taken since 2009,” the year that the Israeli army responded to hundreds of rocket launches from Gaza on Israeli cities with a massive assault against Hamas.
The sentence is relatively harsh for the judiciary in Belgium, where authorities in recent years have faced numerous accusations by Belgian Jews and others of not being firm enough on antisemitic hate speech. The man also was fined about $900.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
