{"id":452431,"date":"2026-05-06T18:56:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/06\/scontro-tra-belgio-israele-e-usa-per-un-caso-giudiziario-su-pratiche-di-circoncisione\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:17:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:17:54","slug":"belgium-israel-and-the-us-clash-over-a-court-case-concerning-circumcision-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/06\/belgium-israel-and-the-us-clash-over-a-court-case-concerning-circumcision-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium, Israel, and the US clash over a court case concerning circumcision practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 A legal case that has turned into a battleground for political attacks and confrontation between Belgium, Israel, and the United States of America. The casus belli is the Belgian judiciary\u2019s desire to shed light on cases of child circumcision<\/strong>. This has triggered a violent reaction from Tel Aviv and Washington<\/strong>, complete with accusations of anti-Semitism levelled at the European country, and the consequent response from Brussels, which has rejected attempts at interference<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As reported by the Belga <\/em>news agency<\/a>, the Antwerp Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office<\/strong> announced today (6 May) that it intends to refer two mohels\u2014that is, individuals responsible for performing circumcisions\u2014to the criminal court for alleged illegal practices, explaining that the offences in question have been classified as “premeditated intentional bodily harm against minors and the unauthorised practice of medicine<\/strong>.” One of the two is a US citizen, and the case dates back to May 2025 when, during a judicial investigation, the police carried out three searches, two in the city\u2019s Jewish quarter and one in the Groen Kwartier district. The Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office suspected that medical procedures might have been carried out by individuals without recognised medical training. \u201cThe investigation focuses on medical procedures carried out by people who have not received medical training. In other words: the circumcisions would not have been performed by or with a doctor<\/strong>,\u201d the prosecutors had clarified at the time.<\/p>\n

In May last year, no arrests had been made, but the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office now believes there is sufficient evidence to ask the Indictment Division to rule on whether the two suspects should be referred to the criminal court. The men are currently being granted access to the case file, and the Indictment Division will examine the case in camera on 18 June and decide whether the defendants should stand trial. But the case goes beyond the judicial and news spheres, becoming a political issue and a matter of Belgium\u2019s relations not only with Israel but also with the United States of America.<\/p>\n

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa\u2019ar<\/strong>, posted on his social media channels<\/a> that “with this measure, Belgium, along with Ireland, joins a short and shameful list of countries that resort to criminal law to prosecute Jews who practise Judaism<\/strong>.” He then described the accusation as \u201can indelible stain on Belgian society<\/strong>\u201d and called on the Belgian government \u201cto act immediately and find a solution<\/b>.\u201d Echoing his sentiments, the US Ambassador to Belgium, Bill White<\/strong>, commented<\/a> on the incident on X, describing the legal proceedings as “a shameful stain” on the country. Not only that: “The persecution of these religious figures (mohels), one of whom is American, is WRONG and will not be tolerated,” he added, emphasising that “Belgium will now be viewed as anti-Semitic by the world.” The ambassador insisted that “the Trump administration condemns this legal action and also condemns the Belgian government\u2019s political inaction in finding a solution with the wonderful Jewish communities here in Belgium<\/strong>.” White then called on the De Wever government to find \u201can immediate solution\u201d to the situation. \u201cFor the sake of Belgium\u2019s reputation in the world, I hope that Belgium acts immediately<\/strong>,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Maxime Pr\u00e9vot, has responded relentlessly to the accusations from Tel Aviv and Washington. <\/strong>“I urge you to exercise greater restraint and to consider your role in its proper context” because “it is not appropriate to publicly criticise a country and tarnish its image simply because one disagrees with a judicial proceeding<\/strong>,” wrote on its social media channels<\/a>, rejecting the criticisms levelled by White. “Would you find it acceptable if our ambassador in Washington were to do the same?<\/strong>” he added. Pr\u00e9vot pointed out that the Belgian judiciary is \u201cindependent and makes decisions free from any political influence.\u201d He also noted that the proceedings in question had been initiated by representatives of the Jewish community themselves. \u201cTo describe this as a country\u2019s desire to undermine the religious freedom of Jews is defamatory<\/strong>,\u201d he emphasised. Earlier, the Deputy Prime Minister had replied <\/a>to<\/span> Sa\u2019ar, reminding him both that \u201cin Belgium, the judiciary is independent and makes its decisions\u2014whether one agrees with them or not\u2014free from any political influence\u201d and \u201cthat the proceedings in question were initiated by representatives of the Jewish community themselves.\u201d Finally: “Since you yourself have recently urged against conducting diplomacy via Twitter, I suggest we discuss all these matters during a meeting in Israel at a time that suits you best, in order to put an end to any misunderstanding.”<\/p>\n

\n

From the European Parliament, Elio Di Rupo<\/strong>, Prime Minister of Belgium from 2011 to 2014 and now an MEP, replied<\/a> harshly to White: “If an ambassador had made such statements during my time as Belgian Prime Minister, I would have declared him persona non grata. If you don\u2019t like my country, go back to Mar-a-Lago. There\u2019s certainly no shortage of flights between Belgium and Florida. If you stay, I ask you to respect us and the laws in force in our country<\/strong>,\u201d he thundered.<\/p>\n

Last year, the investigation had already provoked strong reactions from Jewish organisations in Belgium and abroad. The European Jewish Association (EJA) had described the police operations as \u201cyet another crossing of a red line to intimidate Jewish religious leaders in Belgium<\/strong>.\u201d The Belgian Forum of Jewish Organisations (Forum der Joodse Organisaties \u2013 FJO) and the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organisations in Belgium (Le Comit\u00e9 de Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique \u2013 CCOJB) also criticised the searches, describing them as a \u201cserious violation of religious freedom<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar, the European country, \u201calong with Ireland, joins a short and shameful list of countries that use criminal law to prosecute Jews who practise Judaism.\u201d Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Pr\u00e9vot said: \u201cThe judiciary is independent and makes its own decisions\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7907,"featured_media":452415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25712,25707],"tags":[29350,25890,33580,33983,33984,33451,33985,33986,26104,33987],"class_list":["post-452431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-world-politics","tag-belgio","tag-circoncisione","tag-di-rupo","tag-magistratura","tag-prevot","tag-saar","tag-usa-en-2","tag-white"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7907"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452432,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452431\/revisions\/452432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}