Israeli Envoy Asks Belgian News Site to Remove Pandemic Photo of Ultra-Orthodox Jew
by Israel Hayom / JNS.org

A photo accompanying a ‘Brussels Times’ article about global COVID-19 deaths. Photo: Screenshot/The Brussels Times.
JNS.org – Israeli Ambassador to Belgium Emmanuel Nahshon is accusing a major English-language news outlet in Belgium, The Brussels Times, of antisemitism, after the paper used an image of an ultra-Orthodox Jew wearing a mask to illustrate a story about global COVID-19 mortality.
“Global death toll tops 1.1 million. Why did you put a picture of an Orthodox Jew as illustration of your report? … it’s unnecessary and unpleasant,” Nahshon wrote in a Twitter post.
Nahshon, who has been fighting expressions of antisemitism in Belgium, was outraged over the choice of image.
Nahshon asked the news outlet to choose another picture. The Israeli Embassy in Brussels said, “This is how antisemitism is spread.”