Four hundred Orthodox Jews from Antwerp, Belgium traveled to the capital city of Brussels today (Thursday) to participate in a protest outside the Israeli consulate. They expressed their opposition to the Zionist state, and to its desecration of ancient graves and brutal silencing of protestors.

Preparations for today's demonstration began more than a week ago, as fliers were distributed throughout the Orthodox community depicting the events in the Zionist state.

Aside from the Torah-true community, Antwerp is home to a large Zionist community. Zionist pride is in decline in Antwerp, but there are still some leaders who want to maintain their dominance, and therefore sought to prevent media coverage of the protest. They went to the media and told them that True Torah Jews Against Zionism are a wild band representing only a small percentage of Belgian Jewry.

On the day before the demonstration, the Pshevorsker Rebbe, one of the most respected Chassidic leaders of Antwerp, wrote a letter calling on all his followers to participate. He also ordered his representative to announce after each prayer service in his synagogue that night (Wednesday night) and Thursday morning that everyone should travel to Brussels and participate.

Read the letter by the Pshevorsker Rebbe, click here.

Chartered buses left early Thursday morning, and others went by car. The speakers at the demonstration were: Rabbi Yaakov Grohman, head of the Satmar school of Antwerp, who quoted his grandfather, the well-known fighter against Zionism, Rabbi Amram Blau; Rabbi Avraham Yitzchok Ullman, member of the court of the Eidah Chareidis of Jerusalem; Rabbi Yitzchok Heiman of Antwerp spoke in Flemish; Rabbi Meir Schwartz of London spoke in English; Rabbi Chaim Ashkenazi spoke in French; Rabbi Meilech Stern, who recently visited the Holy Land, related to the crowd the anti-religious persecution he had witnessed there.

It was a historic day for Belgian Jewry, and many expressed their hope that there would be such demonstrations there more often. Activists plan to go to the local headquarters of the European Union in Brussels and deliver their message of protest against the Zionists.

Click here to read the press release in Flemish, distributed prior to the demonstration.

To read a statement by anti-Zionist Jewry of Belgium published in January 2009, click here.