Story By: Lee Bullen,Sub Editor: Joseph Golder,Agency: Central European News

The right-wing mayor of a Belgian town that lost UNESCO recognition for its annual carnival because of blatantly anti-Semitic costumes has this year again attacked Jews – this time portraying them as insects.

Belgium’s ‘Carnival of Aalst’ which takes place in the city of Aalst about 10 miles from the northern capital Brussels was slammed in 2019 for it use of anti-Semitic themes which saw it stripped of its UNESCO World Heritage status

In response, this year carnival organisers have included even more caricatures of Orthodox Jews including one team portraying them as insects and another showing them with hooked noses.

Israel has already called for the 2020 carnival to be cancelled because of blatant anti-Semitism, but the festival that last over several days as we started, and will continue until 26th February.

Organisers and carnival goers said this year’s imagery is designed to reject the criticism the event received last year.

One reveller, identified as 26-year-old Fred van Oilsjt, told local media while wearing a costume that appears to be a mixture of an insect and an Orthodox Jew said: “This is us saying we’re not going to stop making fun of everyone.”

Van Oilsjt and 11 friends said there costumes consisted of an ants’ abdomen and legs attached to their backs along with a sign that read “obey”.

Van Oilsjt claimed the choice of costume was referring to how the Dutch word for the Wailing Wall sounds like “complaining ant”.

Meanwhile, another group reportedly wore fake hooked noses and costumes that mocked Orthodox Jews.

They rode on a carnival float that had signs such as “regulations for the Jewish party committee”, “do not mock Jews” and “certainly do not tell the truth about the Jew”.

Journalist Rudi Roth said this year’s use of anti-Semitic imagery was more bigger than last year, referring to it as a “backlash effect”.

Last year, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported the carnival for using effigies of smiling Orthodox Jews with bags of cash while a rat was seen sitting on one of the model’s shoulders.

Town mayor Christophe D’Haese of the right-wing New Flemish Alliance claimed that the images are not anti-Semitic in the “context of the carnival”.

He added: “Any illegal hate speech will be dealt with by law enforcement officers.”

During a press conference, he told reporters: “This is not an anti-Semitic event.”

The president of the Belgian League against Anti-Semitism, Joel Rubinfeld, said that while the displays are “the work of a minority of participants and spectators” they also “stain the whole event”.

He added: “Aalst’s name is now associated with anti-Semitism, and that’s partly because of the mayor’s inaction.”

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