Anti-Zionist party blames Israel for slain imam

Belgian party organizing protest rally does not mention that police are holding an Arabic-speaking Sunni suspect in the murder.

By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
Belgian police 311 (R) (photo credit: Francois Lenoir / Reuters)
Belgian police 311 (R)
(photo credit: Francois Lenoir / Reuters)
THE HAGUE – The French Anti-Zionist Party is organizing a protest rally on Sunday in Brussels following the slaying of a Shi’ite imam there last week.
Official invitations to the event do not mention that Belgian police are holding an Arabic-speaking Sunni suspect in the murder.
A former leader of Belgian Jewry accused the party of capitalizing on the killing to “spread conspiracy theories against Israel and the Jews.”
On Monday, a man threw a Molotov cocktail into the Imam Reda Mosque in the Belgian capital. The attack claimed the life of the local imam, Abdellah Dahdouh.
Brussels police arrested the suspect hours later. He said he could not communicate in French and demanded an interpreter.
All “students, followers and sympathizers” are invited to the march to Justice Palace in Brussels, the invitation read.
A video posted on the Anti- Zionist Party’s website shows a man being interviewed outside the attacked mosque, saying: “We would never think of blaming our Sunni brothers for this, we will not fall into this trap.”
“When the Anti-Zionist Party organizes a protest vigil for a slain imam with no further commentary, it creates the impression Israel is responsible.”
Joel Rubinfeld, former leader of the representative body of Belgian Jewry, COOJB, told The Jerusalem Post.
He called on Belgian authorities to not allow the march to take place, “as it is a transparent exercise in inciting hate against Israel and Jews.”
The Anti-Zionist Party, run by the French comedian known as Dieudonné, was founded in 2009. Dieudonné was convicted several times in France and elsewhere for anti-Semitic hate speech. In 2007 he said “the Jews were slave-traders,” and the following year he called the Holocaust “memorial pornography.”
Eli Ringer, honorary chairman of the Flanders Forum of Jewish Organizations, said that in talks with the authorities, it emerged that the attack was the work of a lone fanatic.