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What To Do Against Belgium
Arutz 7 ^ | 13 February 2003

Posted on 02/13/2003 1:22:24 PM PST by anotherview

What To Do Against Belgium

MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) recommends that Israel try Belgian leaders for their participation in war crimes committed by Belgium during its conquest of the Congo up til 1960. "This will enable the world to see the Belgians' chutzpah and hypocrisy," Hendel said. It is estimated that between 1880 and 1920, ten million Africans in the Belgian Congo were the victims of murder, starvation, exhaustion induced by over-work, and disease. Well-documented claims allege that women were systematically raped and that the local populace endured kidnapping, looting and village burnings. An article in the London-based Guardian last year stated, "The instrument of Belgian repression was the chicotte - a whip made from sun-dried hippo hide. [King] Leopold's fortune - which he ploughed back into monumental buildings in Brussels - was made on the proceeds of Congolese rubber and ivory. Locals were forced to collect the sap required to produce rubber or, it is alleged, have their hands or feet, or those of their children, cut off." Israel already has on its books a law enabling foreigners to be tried for war crimes, though it has never been implemented.

The Israel Law Center "Shurat Hadin" has gone one step further. It has asked Attorney-General Rubenstein to file a criminal indictment against several specific former Belgian officials who were responsible for the assassination of the leader of the Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961. Shurat Hadin director Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner states that section 16 of Israel's Penal Code - mentioned above - vests Israel with universal jurisdiction over offenses against the "law of nations," including crimes perpetrated by non-Israeli citizens and those committed beyond Israel's borders.

The Israel Law Center notes that Lumumba was elected as the Congo's first Prime Minister after having pledged full economic and political independence from its former occupier, Belgium. "Fearful of losing its lucrative investments in Africa," the Law Center notes, "Belgium decided to eliminate Lumumba and other officials of his party." In fact, on January 17, 1961, Lumumba was brutally tortured by Belgian police officials, brought before a police firing squad and executed. "Recently, Belgian historian Ludo de Witte discovered documents sent by then-Belgian Minister for African Affairs Harold Aspermont Lynen ordering the assassination of the Congo leader." A Brussels-appointed commission in fact found that Belgium had been responsible for the killing, and the government "apologized" to the Lumumba family. Shurat Hadin also names other Belgian officials alleged to have been involved in the murder: Pierre Wigny, Gerard Soete, Franz Verscheure, and others.

Dr. Yaffa Zilbershats, senior lecturer in Bar Ilan University's Law Faculty and an international law expert, recommends that Israel not threaten to try Belgian war criminals - "because that would grant legitimacy to the approach [of trying others]" - but rather to try another track: "We should take Belgium to the International Tribunal in The Hague. Belgium agreed that it could be tried there in the past when the Congo sued it, thereby acknowledging its subservience to that body. Israel could claim that Belgium has no right to sue persons who are not on its territory, and this might lead the Court to agree that Belgium has unreasonably expanded its right to try others..."

Several organizations, led by the Victims of Arab Terror, have called for an Israeli and Jewish boycott of Belgian goods.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 196101; 19610116; axisofweasels; belgium; chicotte; communists; congo; elyakimrubenstein; franzverscheure; gerardsoete; icc; israel; israellawcenter; ivory; kingleopold; leopold; ludodewitte; lumumba; nationalunion; patricelumumba; pierrewigny; rubber; soete; thehague; tzvihendel; verscheure; victimsofarabterror; wigny; yaffazilbershats; zilbershats
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To: Post Toasties
oops, sorry. Itchy mouse finger syndrome.
21 posted on 02/13/2003 2:14:48 PM PST by Post Toasties
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To: ensign
I can't think of anything more derogatory than "Belgians."
22 posted on 02/13/2003 2:15:58 PM PST by dfwgator (Viva Estrada!!!)
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To: SternTrek
Probably as a result of imbibing their warm, sour phegmlike beer.
23 posted on 02/13/2003 2:17:06 PM PST by Post Toasties
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To: anotherview
Belgium makes no sense as a country. Let's give the Flemish part back to the Netherlands and the French part back to France.
24 posted on 02/13/2003 2:18:24 PM PST by colorado tanker (Moderators are our friends)
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To: UCFRoadWarrior
I've heard it spoken in this heavily Belgian area, but where does Walloon fit?
25 posted on 02/13/2003 2:33:37 PM PST by Catspaw
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To: anotherview
What to do about Belgium?

Geez, are these guys a bunch of stupid turlingdromes or what? Are they trying to get the award for Using The Word Belgium in a Serious Screenplay? Ah, what the hell, they should go mix up some Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, that'll get them over it.......

Somebody had to bring up the obvious Douglas Adams reference! :)

26 posted on 02/13/2003 2:35:01 PM PST by adx (Hey, you sass that hoopy adx? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is!)
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To: Catspaw
Aren't they the frog belches?
27 posted on 02/13/2003 2:40:12 PM PST by Post Toasties
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To: anotherview
I gave up waffles. Seems the Belgians haven't given up waffling.
28 posted on 02/13/2003 2:42:18 PM PST by RightOnline
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To: Post Toasties
LOL! Trust me, that's what it seems like around here--a bunch of frog belches is about what Walloon sounds like.
29 posted on 02/13/2003 2:42:21 PM PST by Catspaw
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To: Catspaw
Wallonie - rhymes with baloney?

hehhehheh

30 posted on 02/13/2003 2:52:41 PM PST by Post Toasties
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To: Diddle E. Squat
Give them the UN, as long as the US resigns first!
31 posted on 02/13/2003 2:55:59 PM PST by dalereed
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To: Post Toasties
I don't think you'd want to try that joke out in Brussels, Wisconsin. Or Namur, if you can find it (it's a crossroads with about a dozen houses in Door County WI).

You can even go to Belgian Days in Brussels. They feature a parade (small), a Legion baseball game, a tractor pull and booyah (a chicken soup/stew kind of thing), Belgian pie (made with prunes) and other stuff that I passed on. In fact, I passed on all of the food & headed straight for the beer tent.

32 posted on 02/13/2003 3:00:08 PM PST by Catspaw
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To: Catspaw
The Walloons speak French, except that they have a word for "eighty."

It's time to boycott Belgian endive.

33 posted on 02/13/2003 3:17:56 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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