Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Belgium
Belgium: its Jewish community, the Antwerp diamond trade, 2025 sanctions and conditional recognition of Palestine
About 29,000 people in Belgium identify as Jewish, mostly in Brussels and Antwerp, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC).[1] Brussels hosts the main institutions of the European Union and so an Israeli mission to the EU as well as a bilateral embassy.[2] Antwerp's diamond district is one of "Israel"'s main trading partners in diamonds.[3] In 2025 Belgium announced a conditional recognition of Palestine, sanctions on two Israeli ministers and a planned ban on settlement goods,[4] and intervened in South Africa v. Israel at the International Court of Justice.[5]
Zionist movement
- Main article: Zionist movement Belgium
The WJC says that the Comité de Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique (CCOJB), the political umbrella of some 40 national and French-speaking Jewish groups, includes among its aims to "support the State of Israel, and fight against its delegitimization". It also says that many thousands of Belgian Jews have emigrated to "Israel" since 1948 and formed the Association Originaires de Belgique en Israël there.[1]
Jewish community
The CCOJB, presided over by Yves Oschinsky, is the WJC's affiliate; the Forum der Joodse Organisaties represents Flemish Jewish organisations. Antwerp has a large Hasidic community.[1] More than 25,000 Belgian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust; the Memorial of the Jewish Martyrdom in Anderlecht bears 23,838 names. On 24 May 2014 an attacker killed four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
The Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list of missions records relations with Belgium as recognised in January 1949, with "Israel" represented by its embassy in Brussels, alongside a separate mission to the European Union.[2] The WJC dates diplomatic relations to 1950. It says tensions arose in 2001 over attempts, ultimately blocked by Belgium's supreme court, to try Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for war crimes under Belgian law.[1]
2025 measures and recognition of Palestine
On 1 September 2025 Belgium's federal and Flemish governments agreed a common position on the Gaza war. It declared Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, violent settlers and Hamas leaders persona non grata; tightened Belgian arms exports to "Israel"; barred Israeli military aircraft from Belgian airspace for the duration of the conflict; called for an EU arms embargo and a partial suspension of the EU–Israel Association Agreement; restricted the Tel Aviv office of Flanders Investment & Trade; and began work on a national ban on imports of settlement goods, following Ireland and Slovenia.[4] On 23 September 2025 Prime Minister Bart De Wever announced at the UN that Belgium recognised the State of Palestine, but said that full legal recognition would follow only once the last hostage was released and Hamas was removed from the Palestinian administration, and that the step was "not a reward for Hamas".[6]
ICJ intervention
On 23 December 2025 Belgium filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa's case against "Israel" under the Genocide Convention, focusing on how Article II and the required specific intent (dolus specialis) should be interpreted.[5]
Diamonds
Figures from Israel's Diamond Controller cited by the Jewish Review show that in 2024 Belgium was the second-largest source of "Israel"'s polished diamond imports (19%) and of its rough diamond imports (nearly a quarter), and the third-largest destination for its rough diamond exports (13%). The report says that Belgium "lost its first place as a destination for polished and rough diamond exports compared to 2023".[3]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reports that "Israel" imported goods worth $2,975.9 million from Belgium in 2025 (2024: $3,283.7 million) and exported goods worth $1,328.1 million to it (2024: $1,484.2 million).[7]
Arms
According to SIPRI, Belgium has bought several Israeli weapons systems: 21 EL/M-2130 radars (ordered 1989); 18 B-Hunter drones (ordered 1998 for about $73 million, delivered 2001–2002); 32 UT-30 turrets (ordered 2006, delivered 2010–2014); and 240 Spike-MR/LR anti-tank missiles (ordered 2013, delivered 2015).[8]
Political interference
UN voting
Belgium voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[9]
Ehud Barak emails
The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[10]
- A Bloomberg profile forwarded to Barak in November 2012 noted that "he helped to free hostages in 1972 aboard a hijacked Belgian Sabena airliner", and that a photograph of him on the wing of the plane, "pistol in hand and disguised as a member of the airport ground crew", stood in his office.[11]
See also
- Zionist movement Belgium
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Ireland
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Netherlands
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 World Jewish Congress, Community in Belgium worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 David Rutman, 2024: Israeli diamond sector sees dramatic revenue downturn Jewish Review, 26 January 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 VRT NWS, Belgium to recognise Palestine in due course VRT NWS, 2 September 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 International Court of Justice, Belgium files a declaration of intervention in the case South Africa v. Israel , press release 2025/58 UNISPAL, 23 December 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ VRT NWS, Belgium conditionally recognises Palestinian state VRT NWS, 23 September 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Josh Hantman to Ehud Barak, "Barak Says Israel Will Hit Hamas Until Deterrence Is Restored - Businessweek", 14 November 2012, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!49/1 (380).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026.