Two employees of a bowling facility in Antwerp, Belgium have been fired following an antisemitic incident that occurred on Sunday evening.
According to Ralph Pais, vice-president of Yid, an Antwerp-based Center for Jewish Information and Documentation, Sunday’s incident involved five 18-year-old Jewish men, wearing yarmulkes, and occurred at the Gamestate bowling located on the Keyserlei avenue, close to the city’s Jewish quarter.
As they took their seats on their assigned lanes, instead of their names on the screen they saw “5 JODEN,” which means five Jews in Dutch, according to Pais.
Moreover, the five were ignored throughout by the staff of the establishment, apparently because the were Jewish.
The five also noted that the bartender at the establishment was wearing a T-shirt bearing the word “Palestine” in English and Arabic.
“This is not the first time that antisemitic incidents have occurred in this establishment,’’ said Pais. “In recent months, several reports have been made concerning Gamestate Antwerpen, one of which was the subject of a formal complaint.”
Gamestate is a Dutch bowling chain which owns 16 establishments in five European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Slovakia.
After being informed of the incident, the chain owner, Roel Veltmeijer, issued a statement saying that the group was “shocked and disappointed’’ by the incident in their Antwerp facility, during which two employees acted in a “racist and anti-Semitic way.’’
”We offer our sincere apologies to anyone who feels hurt or excluded by this. This behavior absolutely does not fit with the values of Gamestate, where inclusivity, respect and fun are paramount,” he said.
“After reporting of the incident, we immediately intervened. The employees in question were fired immediately. This event is being seriously evaluated with the rest of the Antwerp team. We do not tolerate racist or discriminatory statements in any way. We take this extremely seriously and act accordingly.”
Originally published by the European Jewish Press.