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November 19, 2004/Kislev 6 5765, Vol. 57, No. 12
Far-rightist party banned
PHILIP CARMEL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PARIS - Belgian Jews are worried that a court decision to criminalize one of Europe's strongest far-right groupings might see the party bouncing back stronger than ever.
The Nov. 10 decision by the High Court in Brussels to convict the Vlaams Blok came after the court found that the group had infringed upon Belgian law by continuing to advocate a racist and xeno-phobic platform.
Vlaams Blok leaders con-demned the move, with the party's president, Frank Van-hecke, saying it had been "condemned to death."
The racist policy in question concerns the party's advocacy of compulsory repatriation for "large groups of non-European immigrants," a platform seen as targeting principally Muslim immigrants in Belgium.
The ruling means that under its current structure, the Vlaams Blok could be stripped of its rights to state funding and television access, thereby forcing it to disband.
The party's strong anti-Muslim line has worried community leaders in Antwerp with persistent rumors cir-culating that certain members of Antwerp's fervently Ortho-dox community have voted for the Vlaams Blok in recent local and national elections.
Claude Marinower, a Jewish memeber of Parliment from Antwerp said it was difficult to assess Jews who may have voted for the Blok because there were no statistics available, but that the phenomenon clearly existed.
Diane Keeser, Secretary of the Forum of Jewish Organi-zations, an Antwerp com-munity umbrella group, said, "We need to be very careful because (Vlaams Blok have) suddenly become friendly with the Jews and very pro-Israel. ... The danger is that they're very careful not to do anything openly anti-Semitic."
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