Meet the Belgian waffler who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but would love to use one.
The Flemish novelist and columnist Herman Brusselmans accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of murdering children and dragging the world into World War III in his regular Flemish HUMO magazine column published in Belgium. In his writing he incited violence against Jews as a result of the ongoing war in Gaza.
“For every Hamas or Hezbollah fighter killed by that Israeli shitty army, hundreds of innocent civilians are killed, and we can do nothing but keep repeating that many of them are children,” he wrote adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to wipe out the Arab world.
“The Middle East will explode, with unruly consequences for the rest of the world. And all this by a small, thick and bald Jew, who bears the ominous name of Bibi Netanyahu. I see a picture of a Palestinian child crying and screaming completely beyond all senses to his mother lying under the debris, and I imagine that this child is my son Roman, and the mother is my friend Lena, and I am so angry that I want to push a sharp knife in the throat of every Jew I come across.”
Bursselmans, as well as his editor, have defended his language, calling it “metaphorical” and “satire”:
Brusselmans called the accusations “completely crazy” and argued that his imagery of taking a knife to Jews’ throats was metaphorical.
“With my column I wanted to say that when something is done to your loved ones for no reason, you are filled with total anger,” he said to the Belgian news service VRT.
His editors have also defended the column. “With satirical writers such as Herman Brusselmans, the writing should never be taken 100% literally,” said Humo’s editor-in-chief. “That is why the editorial staff did not intervene in the text of our columnist.”
Thankfully, the European Jewish Association is starting legal proceedings against him for incitement to murder, and has demanded a full apology and his suspension.
Meanwhile, I would just love to use a sharp object on him too – scissors, so I can cut that dry, mangy mop on his head:
