Belgian Jewish organisations have made a formal complaint after a journalist wrote of Jews having "ugly noses" in a column attacking Israel.

Writing in De Morgen, Dimitri Verhulst misquotes singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, writing: "Being Jewish is not a religion, no God would give creatures such an ugly nose."

Mr Gainsbourg actually said "No religion makes you grow such a nose".

The Forum of Jewish Organisations, which represents Jews in Flanders, condemned the column as "rabid antisemitism".

In the Netherlands, Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs called it "pure antisemitism" and said he was "concerned the newspaper had published it, in an oped for the ND newspaper.

Mr Velhulst's column was headline "There is no promised land, only stolen land" - another Gainsbourg quote.

“Because God has His favorites and they have their privileges, Palestinians were driven out of their homes in 1948 to make place for God’s favorites,” he writes.

He also said Israel was guilty of "murdering" 10,000 Palestinians over the past 17 years 

He also accuses Israel of “murdering” 10,000 Palestinians over the past 17 years and says “talking to the Chosen is difficult” - a reference to accusations he has faced of being anti-Israel.

In January 2016, De Morgen sparked anger by interviewing Siegfried Verbeke, a Holocaust denier.

"Of course gas chambers existed, hundreds of them. To disinfect the clothes of people who went through them. But gas chambers designed to kill people never existed, no," he told the paper.

The interview triggered complaints to the Belgian journalism watchdog.