Belgium Deploys Troops To Protect Jewish Sites as Iran-Linked Group Claims Attacks Across Europe

The Belgian government is deploying soldiers to its cities to protect the Jewish community amid a surge in antisemitic attacks linked to an alleged Iran-backed terror group.“The city is a little safer again… the Jewish community too,” Belgium’s defence minister, Theo Francken, wrote on X on Monday. “We say NO to antisemitism!”The soldiers will work alongside federal police to guard Jewish sites, including synagogues and schools, the Belgian defense ministry said. Troops are being deployed first in Brussels and Antwerp, and later in Liege.Mr. Francken announced the plans last week, vowing that “the safety of every citizen must be guaranteed” and pledging to “stand firm against” antisemitism, “always.”Troops began taking up positions Monday, with armed soldiers photographed outside the Great Synagogue in Brussels and throughout the Jewish quarter in Antwerp.Mr. Francken reiterated Monday that “Our military personnel are arriving none too soon” and “Requisition was the right decision.”The deployment follows a string of attacks on Jewish sites in Belgium and neighboring countries. In March, a synagogue in Liege was damaged by an explosion that Interior Minister Bernard Quintin called “an abject antisemitic act that directly targeted Belgium’s Jewish community.”That same month, the Netherlands saw an arson attack on a Rotterdam synagogue and an explosion at a Jewish school in Amsterdam. Dutch officials described both as deliberate antisemitic attacks. Police have arrested five teenage suspects in connection with the Rotterdam fire.A terrorist group with alleged ties to Iran — Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, or “The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right” — has claimed responsibility for all three attacks. The group also claimed Monday’s arson attack on ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer service at London.The group emerged following the onset of the American and Israeli strikes on Iran and has vowed to “keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide until we’ve avenged every child in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and the resistance nations.”Belgium last deployed soldiers to patrol its streets following the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. That operation, called Operation Vigilant Guardian, ran until September 2021.

Belgium Deploys Troops To Protect Jewish Sites as Iran-Linked Group Claims Attacks Across Europe

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