Foreign Minister Eli Cohen expressed outrage on Wednesday after Belgium’s Federal Parliament refused an offer from the Israeli embassy in Brussels to screen a compilation of video footage showing some of the barbaric acts committed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
“In your decision not to screen in parliament the video depicting the atrocities, the President of the Parliament of Belgium is turning a blind eye to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Hamas,” Cohen wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“This is not a propaganda video, rather it is a film created from footage shot by the terrorists themselves, that shows their indiscriminate slaughter of Israeli civilians,” he noted.
In your decision not to screen in parliament the video depicting the atrocities, the President of the Parliament of Belgium @elianetillieux is turning a blind eye to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Hamas.
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) November 15, 2023
This is not a propaganda video, rather it is a film…
Israel’s ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, last week asked the legislature to show the video footage.
The 43-minute video, which has been screened in parliaments across the world, includes Hamas terrorists’ own footage captured by body cameras, security cameras, dashcams and smartphones, and posted on social-media accounts.
On Tuesday, Eliane Tillieux, the president of the Chamber of Representatives, declined Israel’s request, claiming party leaders “did not reach a consensus regarding the screening of the film.”
Belgium Senate President Stephanie D’Hose likewise refused the request, Israel’s Ynet news site reported.
When Rosenzweig-Abu subsequently tried to organize a screening for the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, she again faced rejection, with some lawmakers claiming the film was an Israeli propaganda effort aimed at obscuring “war crimes.”
Belgian Friends of Israel, a Brussels-based pro-Israel NGO, sharply criticized the parliament speakers.
“It’s intriguing that the parliament presidents faced no hurdle in agreeing to host a propaganda photo exhibition related to Palestinian terrorism last year,” stated the organization. “The hypocrisy of the parliament presidents is disgraceful.”
Earlier this month, Petra De Sutter, Belgium’s deputy prime minister, called on her government to sanction Israel. “It is time for sanctions against Israel. The bombing is inhumane,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
De Sutter called for an “immediate” suspension of the association agreement between the European Union and Israel and suggested that Belgium allocate extra funds for the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.
