FRANCAISEntraide et Fraternité / Broederlijk Delen - Comments
Links to politics
-In the case of Palestine, BD strongly condemns the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and supports the boycott of goods and services of Israeli settlements, considered illegal as per international law. As a result, the NGO has been widely criticized by Israeli officials. Moreover, BD’s former employee, Brigitte Herremans, was accused of being anti-Israeli and became implicated in a controversy when she was to be honored with the title of “Peace Envoy” by Pax Christi Vlaanderen in the Dossinkazerne, a place that now serves as a memorial museum to the 25,836 Belgian Jewish, Romani, and Sinti people who were deported by the Nazis during the Second World War.
-However, BD has actively opposed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel. According to Tom De Bruyn and Huib Huyse, this is the reason why, in 2009, it left the Actieplatform Palestina (APP), a coalition of sixteen Belgian NGOs launched in 2001. BD’s policy unit decided to instead work on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in collaboration with CIDSE and the World Council of Churches.
