6 December 2006
A group of Orthodox Jewish teenagers from Antwerp, Belgium, was attacked by young Muslims, according to media reports. The group of sixty 13- to 15-year-olds arrived at a hostel in Beringen, in northeastern Belgium, ten local Muslims approached the building, throwing stones at it and shouting anti-Semitic slogans. Leaders of the Jewish group called police. Undeterred by the police's arrival, the youths continued throwing stones at the building. The group returned to Antwerp the same night, accompanied to the highway by a police escort.
The attackers appeared in a district court over the weekend and were sentenced to community service. Claude Marinower, a Jewish member of the Belgian federal parliament, has announced that he "will raise the issue with the ministers of Justice and of the Interior." Jewish groups called for drastic measures to guarantee the safety of all youth throughout Belgium.
