The European Jewish Association (EJA) and various Belgian organisations defending the Jewish community intend to bring to justice Herman Brusselmans, 66, one of the most famous Flemish writers, author of a column published on 4 August in the magazine Humor. Evoking the war in Gaza and embodying himself as a Palestinian father seeing his son mourning his dead mother, Mr. Brusselmans spoke in particular of his anger and his envy “to stick a sharp knife in the throat of every Jew I meet”. “Of course, we must always remember that not all Jews are murderous bastards.”added the writer.
With his text, this author of numerous novels and essays has, in any case, triggered a media and legal storm and attracted the wrath of Unia, the Flemish Institute for Human Rights. Faced with the virulent criticism that quickly swelled, he invoked his right to free expression, to satire, “to exaggeration, irony and even sarcasm”.
Jewish organisations refuse to believe that his column is anything other than an incitement to murder and are demanding an apology. They have also requested – in vain – the withdrawal of the magazine from sale and the suspension of the columnist. The spokesperson for the Unia centre has judged that the text fuels “the ambient climate hostile to Jews”. After defending Mr. Brusselmans, the management ofHumorowned by the powerful DPG group, also present in the Netherlands and Denmark, finally removed the text from its site on Friday August 9.
“Shocking” remarks
Other newspapers in the DPG group have not clearly defended the columnist, who is not, moreover, at his first controversy. He was notably fined 100,000 euros in 1999 for having denigrated a fashion designer, Ann Demeulemeester, described in one of his books as “dwarf polyp with pouting eyes”. The latest news pleaded, however, on August 8, for ” a idea of freedom of expression (…) which applies to everything and everyone.” De Morgen wrote, for his part, that “in a truly free society, with a truly free opinion, the harsh, simple and inappropriate remarks of Herman Brusselmans should also be allowed to pass. That is to say: with a lot of indignation, criticism and rights of reply, but without legal threats”.
Pol Deltour, president of the Association of Professional Journalists, also believes that the remarks, “indeed shocking”of the person concerned could however be published as a column. On Tuesday, August 13, the famous Dutch writer Arnon Grunberg, who had collaborated for twenty-five years with Humorannounced, for his part, as a sign of protest against this publication, that he was putting an end to his columns in the magazine which he now accuses of “revisionist”.
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Source: Lemonde
