Jewish voices from Belgium call for sanctions against Israel
Eight months after the ceasefire concluded between Israel and Hamas, the fate of Palestinians has faded from the headlines. Yet nothing has been resolved. Whether in Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem, Palestinians continue to suffer systematic violations of their fundamental rights.
As Belgian Jews committed to a just solution to the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people, and as signatories of the open letter “Not in Our Name” published in May 2025, we wish to express our outrage at the ongoing violence inflicted on the Palestinian people by the Israeli authorities. We call on our leaders to take action to put an end to the impunity enjoyed by the State of Israel.
In Gaza, where, according to numerous experts, the population has been subjected to acts that may amount to genocide, the humanitarian situation remains catastrophic. Israeli strikes continue despite the theoretical ceasefire. The Israeli army has extended its control to 60% of the territory and threatens to kill anyone approaching the area it occupies. The population lacks everything.
More than 80% of the territory has been destroyed: homes, healthcare facilities, agricultural systems, schools and other infrastructure have been largely demolished or severely damaged. Yet Israel continues to drastically restrict the entry of humanitarian aid and to prohibit the import of many goods, including medical equipment, on the grounds that they could be considered “dual-use”, thereby preventing reconstruction.
In the West Bank, violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian residents has soared since 7 October 2023. A deliberate strategy of harassment and terror has been put in place with the aim of forcing Palestinians to leave so that their land can be annexed and settlements expanded.
These acts are not the work of marginal or isolated individuals: they are part of a deliberate policy of territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing pursued by Netanyahu’s government, which provides massive financial and military support to the settlers.
On 30 March 2026, the Israeli Parliament passed a law introducing the death penalty for perpetrators of murders classified as terrorist acts, designed to apply exclusively to Palestinians. This law further aggravates a discriminatory judicial system in which Palestinians in the occupied territories are tried before military courts, while Israeli settlers fall under civilian jurisdiction.
It represents a moral failure and a rejection of the values of justice, fairness and humanity that are an integral part of Judaism as we understand it.
Abuses against Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have reached alarming proportions since 7 October 2023. In a report published in January 2026, the Israeli NGO B’Tselem denounced “a systematic and institutionalised policy of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners”.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has publicly boasted about not providing Palestinian prisoners with enough food and about having turned the prisons into “hell”. Several reports by NGOs, United Nations agencies and journalists have documented recurring sexual violence against Palestinian detainees.
Beyond the Palestinian issue, the offensive launched by Israel in Lebanon last March, in a wholly disproportionate response to Hezbollah attacks, has caused the deaths of several thousand people and displaced more than one million residents. Israel now occupies an area of 600 km² in southern Lebanon and prevents residents from returning to their homes.
Faced with such an accumulation of serious and deliberate violations of international law and human rights, we are appalled by the weakness of the international response, particularly from European leaders.
At the Belgian level, the government did commit in September 2025 to banning imports of goods originating from Israeli settlements. However, to date, the Royal Decree required to implement this commitment has still not been adopted.
The European Union, for its part, demonstrated in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine that it is capable of reacting firmly to violations of international law. In the Israeli-Palestinian context, however, it has so far limited itself to statements of condemnation and individual sanctions targeting around a dozen violent settlers and a few organisations supporting them. No measures have been adopted against the State of Israel or members of its government.
It is urgent that the EU not only ban imports of products from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law, but also suspend the Association Agreement that grants Israel favourable terms for economic and trade cooperation. This would simply amount to applying Article 2 of that agreement, which stipulates that relations between the EU and Israel must be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.
The time for moral condemnations without consequences is over. Only concrete and effective sanctions can have an impact on a state that appears to have made violence and war its sole political horizon. Such sanctions are being called for by many Jewish voices around the world who are committed above all to the values of justice and humanity.
Initial signatories
Georges BAUHERZ, Maïra BAUHERZ, Joëlle BAUMERDER, Caroline BERLINER, Vincent ENGEL, Ariane ESTENNE, Julie FISZMAN, Sharon GECZYNSKI, Henri GOLDMAN, Lucy GRAUMAN, Thomas GUNZIG, Ginette HERMAN, Daniel HERMAN, Anne HERSCOVICI, David MENNESSIER, Jonathan MOSKOVIC, Joachim OLENDER, Pierre-Arnaud PERROUTY, Alain POTAZNIK, Gérard PRESZOW, Anne RAKOVSKY, Julie RINGELHEIM, Sabine RINGELHEIM, Aurélien RINGELHEIM, Noémie ROGER, Sacha SCHIFFMANN, Jacques SCHIFFMANN, Simone SÜSSKIND, Lara SZYPER, Olivia VENET, Bruno VINIKAS, Laurent VOGEL.
Are you Jewish and living in Belgium, and do you support this initiative?
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