Soldiers were deployed on the streets of leading Belgian cities on Monday to bolster security for the Jewish community following antisemitic attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands, including an antisemitic arson attack in Antwerp on Monday night.
The deployment was announced last week, but the first soldiers took up positions on Monday. Armed soldiers were pictured outside the Great Synagogue in Brussels, as well as the Jewish quarter of Antwerp.
A Belgian defense ministry spokesperson said that soldiers are being deployed in three different phases: first in Brussels and Antwerp, and later in Liege.
“From today, we're putting soldiers back on the streets in Brussels and Antwerp because safety is a basic right,” Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken said on X/Twitter on Monday.
The deployment, in collaboration with federal police, will provide security at Jewish sites, including synagogues and schools.
Antwerp "is again a little safer... the Jewish community, too. We say NO to antisemitism!" Francken said on Monday.
Ralph Pais, vice-chair of the Forum of Jewish Organisations of Belgium & JID, told The Jerusalem Post, "We welcome this decision and recognize it as a strong and necessary measure."
"The deployment of 600 soldiers in rotating shifts sends a clear signal that the situation is being taken seriously – as it should be under the current circumstances."
A maximum of 200 soldiers are being deployed at once for a period of three months. Deploying 200 soldiers at the same time amounts to a deployment of 600 soldiers, accounting for rotation.
Pais called the deployment a "necessity, not a luxury," given the "level of threat facing Jewish communities and institutions in Belgium, and across Europe, is real and acute."
The Coordination Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium (CCOJB) said the measures offer Belgian Jews greater peace of mind.
“This step sends an important signal that the protection of Jewish life is a priority and that concrete action is being taken in the face of rising antisemitism,” said the European Jewish Congress.
The move follows an explosion this month at a synagogue in Liege that authorities called an antisemitic act, as well as an arson attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam and an explosion at a Jewish school in Amsterdam in the neighboring Netherlands.
This is the first time in five years that Belgium has deployed soldiers to protect its streets. In 2015, the Belgian Armed Forces launched Operation Vigilant Guardian in collaboration with the police to deal with the rising terrorist threat on its soil after the January 2015 Ile-de-France attacks. This lasted for just over six years.
Antwerp MP Sam Van Rooy, however, told the Post, "The deployment of the military is too little, too late." He noted that another arson attack occurred in Antwerp's Jewish quarter on Monday night and that "the soldiers were unable to prevent it."
"The deployment of soldiers is a temporary and inadequate remedy for a number of enormous structural problems – namely, far too few police officers due to budget cuts, the continued import of antisemitism through mass migration from the Muslim world, the failure to punish antisemitism, and the active fuelling of antisemitism by policymakers, teachers, NGOs, and the mainstream media," he concluded.
David Rosenberg, a Jewish businessman and elected representative of the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang to the Antwerp District Council, told the Post on Monday that he saw only two soldiers on the streets of Antwerp, despite the claim of 300.
"It's good they are there, but it is much too late," he said.
He recalled having told the Antwerp council a few years ago that it shouldn't wait for a terrorist attack to get the army in. "And that's what happened, it was just a matter of time,” he said.
"The problem is the increase in security is only for a few days or weeks, and when it calms down, they reduce numbers,” he added.
Belgian officials have already announced that the deployment will downsize to 90 soldiers in three months' time.
Rosenberg also criticized how security is ramped up only around the High Holy Days. "Terrorists are not waiting for the holidays. The regular Jewish community is experiencing threats three times a day [during prayer times] or at school, and it's never taken seriously enough,” he said.
In terms of Jewish security, he said Belgium is falling behind. “If you go to Vienna, Zurich, Berlin, all these places have real protection on the street. There are permanent police stations in front of all synagogues. But us, we have seven police cars patrolling the neighborhood, but we don't have a steady police presence."
Arson in Belgium
On Monday night, a car was torched in Antwerp in what is being treated as a suspected antisemitic attack, a Belgian official said on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Antwerp prosecutor said an investigation was underway, and that the two suspects had been arrested shortly before midnight on Monday, moments after the attack.
The group Ashab al-Yamin, which appeared in recent weeks and seems to be linked to the Islamic Resistance in Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack. It posted a video on social media that shows the fire being set, as well as a threat to “Zionist” targets. Antwerp's prosecutor said that the video appeared authentic and was part of the investigation.
Over the past two weeks, Ashab al-Yamin has claimed attacks on synagogues and Jewish sites in Liege, Belgium, and in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, as well as a Jewish school in Amsterdam. It also claimed responsibility for the arson attack on four ambulances in London on Monday.
"There must be a thorough investigation and decisive action to put an end to this climate of intimidation before it spirals further," Israel's Ambassador to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, said on X.