Publicly funded arts center cancels Jewish school’s event over Gaza ‘genocide’

A Belgian arts center has riled up controversy over its director canceling a Jewish school’s event there because Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza, according to a new report.

Lana Willems, the director of Antwerp’s publicly funded Monty Hall, rejected a June 27 event from the Tachkemoni Jewish School, telling the school’s administration that she was horrified by the war in Gaza and claiming Israel was conducting war crimes against Palestinians, the Times of Israel reported.

“We look with horror at the genocide that is currently taking place in Gaza,” Willems wrote. “We also work closely with several Palestinian artists who are also suffering from the occupation.

“For these reasons, we cannot currently respond to a rental request from an organization for which we see links with present-day Israel,” she concluded.

The decision garnered immediate backlash and condemnation, with Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chair of the European Jewish Association, calling on Antwerp to terminate its public funding of the site over Willem’s alleged act of blatant “racism and antisemitism.

“It is naked discrimination based on a conflict thousands of kilometers away on the most innocent of all, Jewish schoolchildren,” the rabbi told the Jewish News Syndicate. “If it is allowed to stand, the message is simple: ‘Jews, you are second-class citizens, and you are to be punished for events elsewhere.’ ”

The backlash over Willems’ decision caused her to issue a public apology June 9 for letting an international conflict affect the daily lives of Jewish children.

“I made errors in the initial communication with the school, for which I have explicitly apologized to them,” Willems said in a statement.

“I established falsely and prematurely a connection between the school and the Israeli government, with which we do not want to cooperate, or any organization associated with it,” she added.

It remains unclear if the Tachkemoni Jewish School will work with the Monty Hall arts center on an event there.

The Belgian incident is reminiscent of last month’s controversy that enveloped The Royal Concert Hall of Amsterdam last month, when officials canceled an event by the Israeli Jerusalem Quartet.

The Dutch concert hall then made a U-turn after protests and condemnation from Amsterdam’s Jewish community leaders and Holocaust survivors.