STORY: :: Armed soldiers are deployed to guard Jewish sites in Belgium after a spate of attacks
:: Antwerp, Belgium / March 23, 2026
“Very happy. It’s time that they see what’s going on. Last night they burned four Jewish ambulances (in London) so they see it has to be done, there’s no other option.”
:: Liege, Belgium / March 9, 2026
:: The move comes after an explosion hit a Belgian synagogue earlier this month
:: Brussels, Belgium
:: Yves Oschinsky, President of the Coordinating Committee Of Belgian Jewish Organisations
“We always need to have protection, to have security. We need security for our children, for the schools, for the youth movements. Our children must be totally protected when they have any communitarian activity. And so we are asking for that anytime, especially now because we are very much concerned, before the attack, but certainly more since the attack (at the synagogue) in Liege. And so we need that. We are somehow reassured, but we are never without concern.”
The deployment of soldiers, in collaboration with police, will provide security at Jewish sites including synagogues and schools, Belgian authorities said in a press release last week.
The upgrade in security also follows an arson attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam and an explosion at a Jewish school in Amsterdam in the neighboring Netherlands.
Rights advocates have raised concerns about possible attacks against Jewish communities around the world following the launch of the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran. Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish community organization in north London were set ablaze on Monday.