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Flemish Culture Minister Assembles Expert Committee to Help Tackle Claims of Nazi-Looted Art

Flemish Minister for Welfare and Culture Caroline Gennez pictured during a plenary session of the Flemish Parliament in Brussels, Wednesday 02 April 2025. Photo: BELGA via Reuters Connect

Caroline Gennez — the Flemish minister of welfare and poverty reduction, culture, and equal opportunities — is assembling a group of experts who will develop the framework for a permanent committee that will settle claims related to artwork stolen by Nazis from Jews during the Holocaust.

The six-person expert group will include specialists in law, history, and art history. It will be chaired by Bruno De Wever, a historian and emeritus professor of history specializing in World War II who is also the brother of Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever. The group will focus on establishing a permanent restitution commission to advise on claims.

The move marks the first official step by the Flemish government, which governs the northern region of Belgium, to tackle claims of Nazi-looted art from World War II. “Unlike other occupied countries such as the Netherlands or France, we have remained passive for too long,” Gennez said. “We have to catch up. Art that has been stolen or sold under duress must be returned to its rightful owners.”

The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO), which addresses the restitution of Jewish property stolen during World War II, welcomed Gennez’s announcement. “This is a long-overdue and meaningful step toward justice for victims of the Holocaust and their families,” said WJRP President Gideon Taylor and WJRO COO Mark Weitzman in a joint statement on Sunday. “We commend Minister Gennez for her leadership and call on Belgium’s federal and regional governments to work together to ensure that looted cultural property is returned, and history is acknowledged. Justice delayed must not be justice denied.”

Roughly 66,000 Jews lived in Belgium before the Holocaust, but the Jewish community in the country now stands at around 29,000, with most Jews living in Brussels and Antwerp, according to the WJRO.

The post Flemish Culture Minister Assembles Expert Committee to Help Tackle Claims of Nazi-Looted Art first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Says It Would Reduce Troops in Lebanon if Beirut Takes Steps to Disarm Hezbollah

An Israeli tank is positioned on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon

Israel on Monday signaled it would scale back its military presence in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese armed forces took action to disarm Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah.

The announcement from the Israeli prime minister’s office came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu met with US envoy Tom Barrack, who has been heavily involved in a plan that would disarm Hezbollah and withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon.

“If the Lebanese Armed Forces take the necessary steps to implement the disarmament of Hezbollah, Israel will engage in reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction” by the Israeli military, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

The statement did not explicitly say if Israeli forces would fully withdraw from the five positions they hold in Lebanon.

The Israeli military has maintained a presence in southern Lebanon near the border since agreeing to a United States-backed ceasefire with Hezbollah in November.

Israel was to withdraw its forces within two months and Lebanon‘s armed forces were to take control of the country’s south, territory that has long been a stronghold for Hezbollah.

This month, Lebanon‘s cabinet tasked the army with drawing up a plan to establish state control over arms by December, a challenge to Hezbollah, which has rejected calls to disarm.

The prime minister’s office described the Lebanese cabinet’s decision to back the move as a momentous decision. Israel stood “ready to support Lebanon in its efforts to disarm Hezbollah,” the statement said without saying what support it could provide.

Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, has said Israel should comply with the plan for Hezbollah disarmament, which would mean the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The Israeli military continues to carry out periodic air strikes in Lebanon that it said targeted Hezbollah terrorists and facilities used by the Islamist group to store weapons.

Palestinian factions in Lebanon surrendered some weapons to the armed forces last week as part of the disarmament plan.

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Syria Says Israel Takes Some Territory Around Mount Hermon Despite Talks

Israeli forces operate at a location given as Mount Hermon region, Syria, in this handout image released Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

Syria said on Monday that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon, saying the operation violated its sovereignty and posed a further threat to regional security.

Israel did not immediately comment on the accusation by Syria‘s foreign ministry, which comes as the two countries engage in US-mediated talks on de-escalating their conflict in southern Syria. Damascus hopes to reach a security arrangement that could eventually pave the way for broader political talks.

Monday’s incident took place near a strategic hilltop that overlooks Beit Jinn, an area of southern Syria close to the border with Lebanon, the ministry said. Israel also arrested six Syrians there, according to residents in the area.

The area is known for arms smuggling by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group and by Palestinian jihadist factions. Previous Israeli incursions have mostly been in the southern Quneitra governorate.

The Israeli military on Sunday shared footage of what it said were troops locating weapons storage facilities last week in southern Syria.

“This dangerous escalation is considered a direct threat to regional peace and security,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Israel has cited its own security concerns for its military interventions inside Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December, including what it sees as its obligation to protect members of the Druze minority in southern Syria.

Hundreds of people were reported killed in clashes last month in the southern province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killings of Druze by the Syrian government forces.

In January, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli troops would remain on the summit of Mount Hermon indefinitely.

Israel has since then formed a de facto security zone, where it regularly patrols, sets up checkpoints, and carries out searches and raids in villages.

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Widespread Anti-Israel Protests Held in Australia

Demonstrators hold a placard as they take part in the ‘Nationwide March for Palestine’ protest in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Thousands of Australians joined anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, organizers said, amid strained relations between Israel and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.

More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in state capitals Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane, though police estimated the numbers there at closer to 10,000. Police did not have estimates for crowd sizes in Sydney and Melbourne.

In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction Israel” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “free, free Palestine.”

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, told Sky News television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening.”

The protests follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state.

Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain, and Canada.

The Aug. 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where Israel began an offensive nearly two years ago after the Hamas terrorist group launched a deadly cross-border attack.

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