Belgium pulls plug on 'anti-Semitic hatefest'

Brussels police on Sunday used crowd control measures to disperse a riot defying a ban placed by local authorities on a gathering of controversial far-right figures, including French comedian Dieudonn M'Bala M'Bala.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center had criticized the event as an "anti-Semitic hatefest," and expressed support for the Belgium authorities' decision to ban it, Agence France Presse said.

Dieudonn has been performing anti-Semitic material for years but gained prominence in recent months following the Internet-driven success of the "quenelle," his trademark straight arm gesture resembling a reverse Nazi salute. Dieudonn has been repeatedly fined for "hate speech" in his native France, where local authorities in several towns have banned his shows as a threat to public order.

Eric Tomas, mayor of the Brussels suburb of Anderlecht, told Reuters he had issued an order prohibiting the First European Dissidents' Congress, which had been scheduled to be held in the area on Sunday, because there was a clear risk of a disturbance to public order.

Shimon Samuels, international relations director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, issued a statement saying, "The fact that this hatefest is to be held in Brussels, the capital of Europe, the seat of its Parliament ... is a threat to democracy reminiscent of the 1920s Weimar Republic, which brought Europe to the Nazi abyss."

The Belgian League against Anti-Semitism had lodged a legal complaint against the meeting, describing it as a "real day of hatred which would be a framework for the worst gathering of anti-Semitic authors, theoreticians and propagandists in our country since World War II."

Several hundred people who had planned to attend the meeting gathered in Anderlecht, watched by a line of riot police, while the organizers appealed to Belgium's top administrative court, which did not make an immediate ruling.

After a standoff lasting several hours, the police moved in with water cannons to disperse the crowd, which according to some reports numbered between 200 and 500 people.

"There are people coming from Switzerland, France, Strasbourg, from all over," Laurent Louis, an independent member of the Belgian parliament who chairs the "Stand up Belgians" group told Belgian television on Sunday prior to the event's cancellation.

According to AFP, Louis attempted to keep the venue a secret until the last moment to prevent it from being shut down.

"We have seen a total demonstration of anti-democracy. ... We are in the Soviet Republic of Belgium. All our rights are flouted," he told supporters afterward.

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