The European Jewish Association (EJA) initiated legal proceedings on Thursday against Bob Vylan’s singer, whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster, after he chanted on repeated occasions “death to the IDF” during their performances across Europe.
The demand cites the show Robinson-Foster performed on December 2 at the Ancienne Belgique, a concert hall in Brussels, where he repeated the chant alongside other phrases, such as “everyone hates the police.”
Belgian attorney Christophe Boeraeve and EJA legal counsel Adv. Shlomo Dahan filled the demand in the Brussels Court of First Instance, where an investigation was opened over the charges of incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence; dissemination of ideas based on racial hatred; assistance to a group promoting discrimination; public provocation to commit a terrorist offence; glorification of terrorism; participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation; and provocation to commit offences against public authorities.
Along with the chants, Robinson-Foster was using a Samidoun-branded t-shirt, an organization officially classified as terror-linked in several countries and undergoing formal designation procedures as a terrorist organization in several additional countries.
In addition to the legal process, the EJA submitted an official complaint to Belgium’s federal anti-discrimination authority (UNIA), requesting an investigation into the incident and consideration of public and legal measures in response.
Vylan targeted every Israeli, Jew with chants
The EJA explained that, as every citizen in Israel is required to enlist in the army, then “calls for the death of IDF soldiers are, by definition, understood as directed at every Israeli and every Jew.”
”The fact that thousands of Belgian citizens were incited and roused to call for the death of the overwhelming majority of Israelis, while hurling insults at the Belgian police, reflects a profound moral failure and a security threat that Belgian authorities must treat with utmost seriousness,” the EJA said.
Boeraeve and Dahan explained: “Criticise Israeli policy as you wish. But leading thousands to call for the death of the vast majority of Israelis? That is not speech, that is pure incitement. Some might call it rock-and-roll, provocative performance art. But there is a line. Belgian law draws it clearly. When you lead a crowd to call for the death of people defined by their nationality, that line is crossed.”
EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin stated that ”freedom of expression is a pillar of democracy. We recognise it, and we defend it. But when an artist leads thousands to chant for the death of others, when hostility toward law enforcement becomes normalised, a red line has been crossed.”
He added that Belgian law clearly marks that line.
”Silence is not neutrality; it is complicity. We have initiated legal action and filed an official complaint with UNIA. We now expect the authorities to act. What occurred at Ancienne Belgique is not only a moral lapse, it is a threat to Jewish communities and to Belgian society as a whole, and it demands a firm response.”