Belgian sports venue cancels Israeli athletes’ match following anti-Israel vandalism

A sports venue in Belgium cancels Israeli athletes’ tournament following vandalism, amid a separate controversy over a newspaper column about stabbing Jews.

The De Pinte sports complex cites security concerns in canceling the Israeli frisbee youth team match today following the dousing of red paint on its walls by unidentified perpetrators who also wrote “boycott Israhell now,” the De Morgen newspaper reports.

The incident follows a decision earlier this week by the match’s organizers to move it to De Pinte from another venue for security reasons, the paper reports.

Separately, a Belgian columnist, Herman Brusselmans, is under fire for writing in his Sunday column that he feels the urge “to shove a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I see” because of images of children suffering in Gaza. Brusselmans reminds himself that “not all Jews are murderous scumbags,” his column in Humo states.

On X, the Transatlantic Institute of the American Jewish Committee calls Brusselmans’ column “outrageous incitement to antisemitic violence” and urges “the Belgian police to prosecute him and the entire editorial team responsible” for the text.