Israeli tourist in Belgium brutally attacked for peeling off anti-Israeli sticker

In police complaint, Amnon Ohana, 64, says his jaw was broken when he was attacked by 10 men in front of his daughter at a Bruges train station as conductor, passersby looked on

Footage shows a suspect attacking a Jewish man at a train station in Bruges, Belgium on May 17, 2024. (Social media/X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

An Israeli tourist was brutally attacked by several men in front of his daughter at a train station in the Belgian city of Bruges on Friday, after he was seen removing an anti-Israel sticker.

The victim, Amnon Ohana, 64, and his daughter Shira, 29, told police in a complaint that his jaw was fractured when about 10 aggressors confronted him after he peeled the sticker from a wall at the train station.

In a video of the incident filmed by his daughter, two men can be seen shouting at the Israelis from an elevated position, before one of them, a man in his twenties, descends a flight of stairs in pursuit of them as a train conductor and passersby look on.

This altercation followed an earlier beating, which Ohana and his daughter escaped by running downstairs, the father said in the complaint.

Downstairs, the assailant was filmed punching the Israeli man in the ribcage and pushing him to the floor, where he continues to assault him as the daughter films and screams for him to stop.

“I have you on video, fuck off,” the victim’s daughter can be heard yelling in the video.

Ohana’s discharge letter from Oostende hospital confirmed that he had a fractured jaw and multiple contusions across his body.

The Israeli embassy in Belgium filed a complaint on the incident, according to Hebrew media reports, demanding that the suspect be arrested and prosecuted.

The Walla news site added that Israeli Ambassador to Belgium Idit Rosenzweig-Abu in Brussels was in contact with Ohana and his daughter.

“What started as violent discourse has turned in past weeks to actual violence on the streets,” Rosenzweig-Abu wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “We expect the authorities to denounce this violence in the strongest terms possible. And we expect the police to find and press charges against this man.”

Rabbi Mencahem Margolin, director of the European Jewish Association, warned in a statement that the assault was part of an escalation of antisemitic violence that, unless curbed, may likely lead to loss of life.

“It is no longer just verbal violence or spitting but real physical attacks that can end in disaster,” Margolin said, calling on police to arrest the suspects, charge them with an antisemitic hate crime and punish them to the full extent of the law.

The incident came against a backdrop of rising antisemitism and anti-Israel protests across Europe and around the world amid the war raging in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 35,000 people in the Strip have been killed so far in the ensuing Israeli offensive in Gaza, a toll that cannot be independently verified. The UN says some 24,000 fatalities have been identified at hospitals at this time. The rest of the total figure is based on murkier Hamas “media reports.” It also includes some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle.

Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7, while 280 soldiers have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Gaza Strip.

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