The Criminal Court of Ghent on Tuesday ruled that Flemish best-selling author Herman Brusselmans was not guilty of antisemitism and incitement to hatred despite his statements that he wants to kill every Jew over the war in Gaza. In a column published in a Belgian magazine last summer, Brusselmans wrote that when he saw an image of the destruction in Gaza, he “became so enraged that I want to ram a pointed knife straight down the throat of every Jew I meet.” The court ruled that Brusselman’s “expressions of opinion are protected by the right to freedom of expression” as set out by the Belgian constitution. Rabbi Menachem Margolin, president of the European Jewish Association (EJA), slammed the verdict, calling it “a deeply alarming message about the state of the fight against antisemitism in Belgium and Europe.” “Today, the Belgian justice system has established a grave precedent: hate crime laws are flexible – and when it comes to Jews, they suddenly become malleable,” he said. “This ruling effectively legitimizes a person, read by hundreds of thousands, to openly call for the murder of Jews without facing any legal consequences. It deems it permissible to publish in a national media outlet the desire to ‘stab a knife into the throat of every Jew encountered,’ all under the pretext of anger over the situation in Gaza.” “By issuing such a verdict, the Belgian judiciary sends a dangerous message: incitement to murder and hatred can be reinterpreted, excused, and ultimately legitimized – at least when the targets are Jews.” Michel Kotek, chairman of the Jewish Information and Documentation Center, which filed the claim against Brusselmans, called the ruling “a disgrace to Belgian jurisprudence.” “Someone who has been making such statements since 1993 – we are no longer talking about an incident. This is a constant repetition of moves in which antisemitic statements predominate.” “We too are for freedom of speech. But where it spills over into hatred and the deprivation of safety, that’s where a government must intervene. And that’s where it fails.” Brusselmans still faces further court hearings on additional complaints filed over his column, including a claim filed by three Holocaust survivors that he violated Belgium’s anti-racism and negationism laws. Jewish organizations have also filed a civil case against Brusselman, saying that his statements are fuel for antisemitism and hostility toward Belgian Jews. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
A Russian missile attack on Odesa set the MJ Pinar, a grain-carrying bulk carrier, on fire—killing 4 Syrian crew members and injuring others, including a Ukrainian pilot.
President Trump addressed the Business Roundtable’s quarterly meeting in Washington, D.C., attended by CEOs like Tim Cook (Apple), Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Mary Barra (GM), and Doug McMillon (Walmart), claiming his imposed duties are having a “tremendously positive impact” amid a continuing market sell-off.
*BREAKING: Dept. of Education announces it’s cutting 50% of the workforce* “Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”
HaRav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, Rosh Yeshiva of Ateres Shlomo, at the Chasunah of his son to the granddaughter of HaRav Yitzchak Soloveitchik this evening in E”Y.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday evening that he filed a lawsuit against former Minister Moshe Ya’alon for the latter’s claim that the Prime Minister accepted bribes from Qatar. “Nothing will prevent me from continuing to make the right decisions for the security of our country,” Netanyahu said in a video message. “The fake campaigns won’t move me. The nation is yawning because they know it’s all fake news and those who fabricate the cases can’t keep pace with the collapse of the cases. [A reference to the collapse of the corruption cases against Netanyahu currently being heard in court.] “I decided not to remain silent anymore. Today I sued Bogie Ya’alon for the despicable lie he spread that I received something from Qatar. I’ll tell you: I didn’t receive anything from Qatar but I’ll receive [money] from Bogi— and this is just the beginning.” “Nothing will deter me, not even this extortion campaign against me and my family. It won’t stop me,” Netanyahu concluded. Netanyahu was referring to an interview Ya’alon held with Kan Reshet Bet, in which he said that “it turns out that three people in the Prime Minister’s Office are suspected of being funded by Qatar. There is intelligence information that has not yet been proven – for this you need an investigation – that the Prime Minister also received $15 million in 2012, and $50 million in 2018 from Qatar. There are documents from Emirati intelligence. Therefore, when Shin Bet chief investigates this, they [Netanyahu] immediately began the process of firing him,” he claimed. Earlier on Tuesday, an unusual gag order was issued on all the details of the “Qatar-Gate” affair, about two weeks after the Attorney General announced that she is launching a criminal investigation into alleged connections between aides in Netanyahu’s office and Qatar. No accusations have been made against Netanyahu in the case. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
*POTUS:* “When you take away that artificial line that looks like it was done with a ruler…You look at that beautiful formation of Canada & the US. There is no place anywhere in the world that looks like that…& then if you add Greenland, that’s pretty good.”
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Trump is asked about revoking the green cards and visas of pro-Hamas agitators: “We ought to get them all out of the country. They’re troublemakers, they’re agitators, they don’t love our country. We ought to get them the hell out.”
DOOCY: Hello President Trump, are you looking to buy or lease today? TRUMP: I’m going to buy. “Number one, it’s a great product — as good as it gets — and number two, because [he] has devoted his energy and his life to doing this and I think he has been treated very unfairly.”
POTUS: Ukraine just agreed to a ceasefire “a little while ago. Now we have to go to Russia and hopefully President Putin will agree to that also and we can get this show on the road… We want to get that war over with.”
Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda terrorist, says he is trying to respond to Israeli military actions in Syria with “patience and wisdom”—though it remains unclear how much of either a terrorist leader can truly muster, particularly after his forces just executed a bloody purge that left more than 1,000 dead across Syria. Speaking to Reuters, Sharaa dismissed Israeli concerns that his new regime poses a security threat, despite his well-documented extremist past. Israel, which has secured a buffer zone along the border to prevent incursions, has vowed to keep southern Syria demilitarized and has been vocal in its warnings about the new government, repeatedly referring to Sharaa as an “al-Qaeda terrorist.” Israel has also carried out a series of airstrikes aimed at crippling the Syrian army’s military capabilities. “We are trying to use patience and wisdom as much as possible,” Sharaa claimed, seemingly unfazed by the thousands of lives lost at the hands of his own forces in recent weeks. “If there are fears, we have announced from the first moments that Syria will not pose a threat to any state in the region or the world.” In response to Israeli concerns that his forces might attempt a cross-border attack, Sharaa scoffed at the idea, dismissing it as paranoia. “A delusional person can say whatever they want. Every person can imagine that he is suffering from some danger and carry out a preemptive strike and kill. But that is not justifiable.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The Beis Din Rabbani HaGadol recently published a sharply worded ruling in which it completely rejected a cruel appeal by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara against the decision of the Regional Rabbinical Court in Ariel that the religious parents of a mentally ill woman did not have to pay for their daughter to be cremated. The tragic story behind the ruling began in September 2023, when a mentally ill 31-year-old Israeli woman was found lifeless in the town of St. Moritz, Switzerland after taking her own life. The woman’s Israeli passport and her will were found in the room. The nifteres had written in her will, which was signed and notarized in Israel about two weeks earlier, that if her death was determined in Switzerland, “her body should be brought for cremation nearby and quickly.” The nifteres also wrote in the will that her ashes should be stored in Switzerland until her brother collected them. She also appointed her mother as the administrator of her estate and her sole heir. The will’s validation process began in the Regional Rabbinical Court in Ariel. The nifteres’s mother stated in the hearing that her daughter suffered from “many mental difficulties, delusions and false visions and was not sane when signing the will.” Following the hearing, the Beis Din ruled that since the nifteres was not of sound mind, she was incompetent to make decisions regarding her property and body and therefore the will is considered void and her body should be flown to Israel for kevurah as soon as possible. However, Baharav-Miara’s Office filed an appeal against the ruling of the Regional Rabbinical Court to the Great Rabbinical Court with the claim that the Rabbinical Court has no authority to discuss the issue of the body as it is not part of the estate. On the other hand, the mother claimed that the entire will was void because at the time of its writing, her daughter was not competent to make such decisions. The mother also requested to bring her daughter to Kever Yisrael for several reasons, including the family’s wish to have a kever to visit. In their ruling, the dayanim, HaRav Shlomo Shapira, HaRav Tzion Louz and HaRav Tzvi Ben-Yaakov, ruled that the nifteres’s family members, including her sick father, who wished to bring her to Israel for kevurah, are not obligated to act against their faith and finance the cremation of their daughter’s body, especially since according to them, the nifteres was not of sound mind when writing the will. The dayanim noted in the p’sak that the purpose of the appeal is unclear – what is the State-Attorney’s interest in preventing the parents’ wish to bring their daughter to Israel for kevurah? The dayanim slammed the prosecution’s conduct, stating: “It seems that a great deal of callousness, perhaps heartlessness, was needed to act as mentioned. The conduct of the prosecution in this case does not contribute to increasing public trust in the judicial system.” “To our repeated questions, the prosecution’s representative said that the State of Israel will not act and has no means to finance the cremation of the body. Therefore, in the absence of an operation to fulfill the request in the will, the matter will not be realized. And what will be done from now on? Will the […]
BREAKING: In a significant development, Ukraine has endorsed a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire in its ongoing conflict with Russia, with America announcing plans to “immediately” resume Ukraine aid that had previously been paused.
