Her blue eyes still look empty, her blond hair hides the heavy strokes she received. For 10 days, 13-year-old Oceane Sluijzer didn’t leave her house, terrified, afraid to go out.
The fear to walk on the street on her own still paralyzes her, ever since that Friday, about two weeks ago, when five girls of Muslim descent, her schoolmates, humiliated her in public and assaulted her.
“Dirty Jew – go to your country,” they told her, grabbing her hair and slamming her head against their knees. Then they just left her there, at the sports center, not far from the school, while those who witnessed the incident quickly ran away.
Oceane is not alone. Camilla, 16, studies in the European school, considered the most prestigious in Brussels, where children of European representatives are sent to. She recently decided to leave the educational institution and move to the Jewish school after being harassed over her opinions and support for Israel.
But it seems that in Belgium of 2011, the law authorities, government and educational system have already given up. Complete disregard is apparently the way Belgians respond to anti-Semitic attacks these days.
“The police suggested that I keep quiet about the incident. They asked me, ‘Don’t say that it’s anti-Semitism,'” Oceane reveals. “They even suggested that I avoid going to the hospital.”
According to her father, Dan, “The police said they would collect the five girls’ testimonies and settle for that. If they attack her again in the future, they promised to act differently. The police wanted to bury this affair as soon as possible.”
The educational system’s response was similar. Oceane returned home that day and didn’t leave her house for the next 10 days, but no one at the school even bothered to check on her. Her schoolmates disappeared too.
“A week later, the principal called and asked me to visit his office with Oceane’s mother,” the father says. “He said he had decided to suspend the girls’ leader. I informed him that my daughter would not be returning to a school which is incapable of protecting her. As far as he was concerned, it was enough. It was the ideal solution.”
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4 Responses
Where is the adl? Belgium didn’t do much to protect her jewish citizens during the holocust either
Another wake up call!
This time to the Jews of Belgium.
Will they hear it?
Probably not.
Do we?
The only thing we learn from history,
is that most of us learn nothing from history.
Ambassador Howard Guttman will take care of it.
#2 and we are doomed to repeat it! chas v’shalom! May Hashem have Rachmanos on all of us.