World
We won't leave - that's what the terrorists want
Brussels community defiant in the face of Daesh terrorism
March 23, 2016 11:47
By, Josh Jackman
2 min read
Brussels community defiant in the face of Daesh terrorism
March 23, 2016 11:47ByJosh Jackman, Josh Jackman
Members of Brussels' Jewish community, which has lived under police protection since it was the target of a terror attack in 2014, have spoken of their fear and defiance in the wake of the atrocities in the city on Tuesday.
Yossi Lempkowicz, a senior media adviser for the Europe Israel Press Association, said: "It's a situation I've never seen in Brussels, a crazy situation.
"People are scared. The authorities have asked people not to go outside, as it may happen elsewhere in the city, because it was a co-ordinated terror attack."
Chouna Lomponda, head of communications at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, where a jihadi gunman killed two Israeli tourists and two members of staff in 2014, said that although it was "difficult to carry on living in the country", she was determined to stay.
"If we leave Belgium, we will give the terrorists what they want. The country has to be unified.
"We don't want to leave Belgium, and we don't want to leave Brussels. And to ignore the memory of the victims, of Alexandre Strens, of Dominique Sabrier, of Emanuel and Miriam Riva? We have to continue our mission - then they didn't die for nothing."
Mr Lempkowicz said that the Jewish community has been afraid for years: "I've become worried, living in Brussels. When I'm walking around near the parliament, even though I don't wear a kippah, I always look around me, and I never had this feeling before.
"Other people feel the same. That's why some have left for Israel. Even though there are attacks there, they feel more secure in Israel because the authorities know how to tackle terrorism."
Daesh claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks at Zaventem airport and Maalbeek underground station, which left 34 dead and at least 136 injured, including an Israeli and a Jewish Belgian.
Salah Abdeslam, who planned the attacks on Paris in November which killed 130 people, was arrested on Friday in Molenbeek. The western Brussels neighbourhood has become a base for extremists including Mehdi Nemmouche, Jewish Museum attacker.
French terrorists Mohammed Merah, who killed four Jews and three soldiers in Toulouse in 2012, and Amed Coulibaly, who killed four Jews in the Hyper Cacher grocery in Paris in January, also received assistance in Molenbeek.
Mr Lempkowicz said it was "a small village of jihadi activity - the sort of district where they can live without any contact with the outside. There are shops full of books about terrorism."
Decades ago, he recalled, it was a popular area for Jews, a place which "no-one would have believed could become an incubator for terrorism.
"Because they were too open and too lax, Brussels has become a hotbed for jihadis. This happened for years without any intervention, without any action. These are the consequences."
Serge Rozen, president of the Coordinating Committee of Belgian Jewish Organisations, told the Forward: "The Jewish community remains threatened because we are a target. The fact that we were not specifically targeted this time does not mean we won't be in the future." He added that the number of Jews leaving Belgium was on the rise.
