Jewish group protests Belgian writer's appearance on Dutch TV show

By Janene Pieters on July 29, 2016 - 08:53
Dyab_Abou_Jahjah
Dyab Abou Jahjah (Photo: Han Soete/Wikimedia Commons). (Dyab Abou Jahjah (Photo: Han Soete/Wikimedia Commons))

Jewish activist group Tradition is Our Future (TOF) placed an ad in Dutch newspaper Trouw on Friday to protest against broadcaster VPRO inviting Belgian writer Dyab Abou Jahjah to appear on the television program Zomergaste, ANP reports.

TOF claims that it is "dangerous" to give the "militant and antisemitic" Abou Jahjah a podium to present himself as an established opinion maker. The ad describes Abou Jahjah as a "friend of the terrorist Hezbollah", accuses him of having a "monstrous ideology" and being guilty of "incitement".

According to ANP, TOF initially wanted a television ad to protest Abou Jahjah, but this was stopped by STER.

Abou Jahjah is set to be the first guest on Zomergasten on Sunday. The controversial Belgian-Lebanese writer is known for founding the Arab European League (AEL) in Antwerp in 2000. When riots broke out in 2002 after a Belgian killed a Moroccan, the AEL started citizen patrols to investigate racism at the local police.

Interest group Federated Jewish Netherlands announced on Twitter that they pressed charges against Abou Jahjah for "spreading hate and support of terrorism"

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