'There Is a Serious Problem in My Country'
A Conversation with Joël Rubinfeld, Part II
by Grégoire Canlorbe • June 19, 2026 at 5:00 am
Belgium... banned the overflight of aircraft carrying materials that could be used by Israel for military purposes. That is how my country treats the only democracy in the region, which is currently fighting an existential war on seven fronts -- not just to defend itself but to defend Western civilization. Belgium and other countries in Europe are trying to prevent Israel from defending itself -- and Europe!
In Belgium... there are people of integrity, but they remain the exception. In the political sphere, the most notable example is Georges-Louis Bouchez, president of the Mouvement Réformateur ("Reformist Movement," a center-right party)....
Two thousand years ago, Jews were accused of "deicide"; today, of "genocide." Antisemitism, like a virus, adapts to its environment. In Western societies, where religion is less important, the accusation is recast in the dominant language of the moment — that of human rights.
The problem is that he has to hold the coalition together.
Joël Rubinfeld is a founding member and president of the Belgian League Against Antisemitism and president of the Jewish Coalition for Kurdistan. He was president of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium, vice-president of the European Jewish Congress, and co-chairman of the European Jewish Parliament.
Grégoire Canlorbe: With the rise of antisemitism in Europe, what has been the result? Has there been an exodus of Jews from Belgium, and if so, what has been its scale?
Joël Rubinfeld: Yes, there has been, although there is no precise data. We might turn to the statistics of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which records how many Jews from different countries who settle in Israel under the Law of Return, the right to come "home" - called Aliyah, to go up. These figures make it possible to tell how many Belgian Jews move to Israel each year but do not include those moving to other countries.
