Free Republic

All it took was a little bit of graffiti for Belgium’s third-largest city to side with hate. A group of Israeli frisbee athletes was scheduled to play in an international competition in Ghent last week when a vandal spray-painted antisemitic graffiti near the field: “Boycott Israhell Now!” Insanely, the town’s mayor and police force reacted by booting the Israeli team from the competition. ... More, the town told the coaches and team members they couldn’t even watch the game. In 2024, people in a major Western European city (a university town, no less!) are being banned from sporting events because...

An Israeli delegation has been banned from a youth ultimate frisbee competition in Belgium after they were targeted by anti-Israel protests and vandalism. According to the ultimate frisbee site Ultiworld, the Israeli delegation to the U-17 European Youth Ultimate Championships in Ghent, Belgium, consisted of two teams, competing in the open and mixed divisions. From the get-go, the organizers of the competition were met with heavy pressure due to the Israeli participation. Shortly before the competition was set to begin, the Ghent city council and police decided to ban the Israeli teams from playing in the city due to a...

Wolsey was much inspired by Pietro Torrigiano's gilt tomb for Henry VII at Westminster Abbey, and the Cardinal commissioned Benedetto Da Rovezzano to work on lavish tomb in the Renaissance style, of which the Wolsey Angels were to stand proudly at the four corners. As we know, the tomb was not completed during Wolsey's life time and following his fall from grace and subsequent death King Henry VIII reappropriated the elements of the tomb that Benedetto had thus far completed, discarding the effigy of Wolsey and other items which specifically pertained to the Cardinal.Henry went on to commission Benedetto to...

"There are no words to express the result" was the beaming reaction of Belgium's Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, after a 15th-century masterpiece -- painted over shortly after completion -- was restored to its former glory. And they were right -- commentators have been left speechless by one particular aspect of the newly revealed painting. The latest panel of the "Ghent Altarpiece," a large work by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, was unveiled in December as part of an ongoing project to restore the painting to its original design. The painting -- also known as "The Adoration of the Mystic...

The BBC and other outlets report this morning that as many as four gunmen have entered a residential apartment building in Ghent, Belgium and have taken hostages. ABC/Reuters reports: Four gunmen in Belgium have taken several people hostage after they entered a flat in the north-western city of Ghent, according to unconfirmed reports. Heavily-armed police have surrounded the area and authorities have urged residents to stay indoors. The state prosecution service said there were no immediate indications of a link to terrorism. It is not known if the event is related to the Sydney Siege. Reports continue to break on...

The human cost of the War of 1812 was dramatic. Some 35,000 people were killed, wounded or missing at the end of the war. York (now Toronto), Niagara (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) and Washington, D.C. were torched. Elsewhere, homes and properties were looted and damaged and family lives were thrown into chaos. The borders between British North America and the United States might not have changed when the fighting stopped — the old lines were reconfirmed in the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war on December 24, 1814. But once the treaty was signed, there wasn’t simply a return to the...

GHENT - Belgium's third largest city Ghent has banned its employees from wearing Muslim headscarves and other religious or political symbols. The proposal by the Flemish liberal party was approved in the city council by 26 votes to 23. All city personnel, such as librarians and child care workers, will not be allowed to wear such garments or symbols if they come into contact with the public. The council voted 26 to 23 late on Monday for the ban, with the Liberals, Christian Democrats and far-right Vlaams Belang in favour and the socialists and Greens against. "It is really not...