ILF CALLS FOR ACTION AS BELGIUM FOOTBALL FANS SING ANTISEMITIC CHANT

Footage published by La Derniere Heure shows dozens of Brugge fans celebrating their local team's victory over Brussels' Anderlecht that day by singing in Flemish: "My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS, together they burned Jews 'coz Jews burn the best."

​

The ILF has called on the Royal Belgian Football Association and the Belgium Ministry of Culture, Youth, Sports and Media to take immediate action, demanding that the team be immediately fined and the fans condemned.

​

Calls to burn Jews, especially those that pass without any counter-action or sanctions in 21st-century Europe, are particularly severe and disturbing.

​

The European Union, the State of Belgium and the Belgium Football Association have clear rules against hate, Antisemitism and violence such as this. 

​

We demand that the Belgians fully enforce the law and convey a legal, ethical and moral message to the fans and to the general public. Avoiding this, unfortunately, also sends a message," said ILF Director attorney Yifa Segal on Kol Chai.

The chant, whose use was first reported by the media in 2015, has proliferated in the Netherlands and Belgium in recent years.