Belgium cancels invitation to UN for anti-Israel NGO
Belgium revoked its invitation to Brad Parker, a senior adviser for policy and advocacy at the NGO Defense for Children International – Palestine, to address the UN Security Council, following a concerted effort by Israeli Foreign Ministry officials to stop the speech from happening.
DCI-P officials have documented ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group. The representative originally invited to address the UNSC has a history of anti-Israel activism, which was probed by the City University of New York, where he is a professor.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz praised Belgium’s decision, highlighting DCI-P’s ties to terrorism, and said that “from his statements, it appears that [Parker’s] intention has to take advantage of the invitation to hurt Israel.”
The canceled speech “is a result of successful diplomatic actions towards Belgium, which should be praised,” Katz said.
Parker told the Agence France-Presse on Friday that Monday’s UNSC meeting on the Middle East will be held behind closed doors, which means he will not be able to speak. The activist said he planned to address “grave violations” by Israel in 2014-2019.
“It is frustrating once again the political context has worked to silence our voice,” Parker told AFP.
In its efforts to prevent Parker from being able to address the UNSC, Israel summoned Brussels’ deputy ambassador to be reprimanded twice for what the Foreign Ministry has called anti-Israel actions from Belgium in the UN Security Council, where it holds the temporary presidency.
Israeli Ambassador to Belgium Emmanuel Nahshon continued to urge Brussels to reconsider the invitation, even after he was reprimanded by the foreign ministry in Brussels for taking the cause to social media.
“We are extremely disappointed that Belgium, which professes to care about children in conflict zones, didn’t think it appropriate to invite reps of Israeli children living under Hamas rockets for the past 15 years,” Nahshon said earlier this month.
Foreign Ministry sources have said Belgium has become the country most hostile to Israel in the European Union, together with Ireland, and is the most outspoken against Israel in the UNSC, even more so than Muslim UNSC member states like Indonesia and Tunisia.
DCI-Palestine describes itself as an organization defending the human rights of Palestinian children. It alleges that Israel is committing war crimes and supports the BDS movement. It shares several leading figures with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist group in the US, EU, Canada and Israel, to the extent that Citibank and the Arab Bank have stopped providing banking services to the NGO.
Parker is the driving force behind pro-BDS legislation introduced in the US by Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, the think tank NGO Monitor reported. Last January, in his capacity as an adjunct professor at the CUNY Law School’s Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, Parker filed an anti-Israel submission to the UN, replete with false statements and whitewashing of terrorist groups like Hamas. CUNY subsequently launched an investigation into the law school’s partnership with DCIP.
On Sunday, a parade in Aalst, Belgium is expected to include antisemitic images, despite losing its UNESCO status last year due when the city’s mayor refused to remove the displays.
The Aalst Carnival’s organizers have sold hundreds of “rabbi kits” for carnival revelers who take part in the carnival’s parade to dress up as hassidim (ultra-Orthodox). The kit includes oversized noses, sidelocks (peyot) and black hats. This is in addition to the plan to bring back floats similar to the one displayed in 2019 featuring oversized dolls of Jews with rats on their shoulders, holding banknotes.