Antisemitic parade in Belgian city depicting Jews with hooked noses ‘just fun,’ mayor’s spokesman says

‘Hateful’ festival goes ahead despite demands to ban it

Costumed revellers parade during the 'Zondagsstoet' on the opening day of the Aalst carnival (AFP/Getty)

A Belgian carnival parade featuring caricatures of Jews for the second year in a row has been defended as “just fun” by a spokesperson for the city’s mayor.

The Aalst Carnival parade, which was denounced as “hateful” by Israel’s foreign minister, went ahead on Sunday despite accusations of antisemitism and racism last year over depictions of Orthodox Jews with bags of money.

Some participants wore costumes portraying Orthodox Jews as ants and posed alongside a mock-up of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Wailing Wall, which is one of the holiest sites for Jews.

Another of around 60 floats included a caricature of an Orthodox Jew with boxes of diamonds, while some marchers wore fake elongated noses, side locks and giant fur hats.

A spokesperson for the mayor of Aalst characterised the parade as “our humour... just fun”.

Peter Van den Bossche told the BBC: “It’s our parade, our humour, people can do whatever they want. It’s a weekend of freedom of speech.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, had called on Belgium to scrap the parade, tweeting: “Belgium as a Western democracy should be ashamed to allow such a vitriolic anti-Semitic display.”

He said authorities should ban “this hateful parade”.

Sophie Wilmes, Belgium’s prime minister, said: “Even though Aalst Carnival is much more than that, these facts detract from our values and reputation of our country.”

She said stereotypes that stigmatise “lead to division”.

“It endangers society,” she added. “Specifically when it comes to repeated and conscious actions.”

However, Christoph D’Haese, the mayor of Aalst, said: “I did not see an antisemitic or racist parade. To the contrary, I saw a high mass of free speech and creativity.”

He then posed with a carnival participant wearing a stereotypical hooked nose.

Other floats at the centuries-old parade poked fun at Brexit and climate change by mocking Boris Johnson, the British royal family, and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Some people also walked around in Nazi SS uniforms.

The annual carnival was booted from the United Nations’ Unesco world heritage list last year “over recurring repetition of racist and antisemitic representations”.

Two floats featured effigies of local politicians holding toilet rolls with the words “Unesco” and “censorship” written on them.

The festival went ahead amid a resurgence of antisemitism worldwide.