Jewish communities across Europe have been targeted in a growing wave of antisemitic incidents amid rising tensions in the Middle East, prompting Jewish leaders to demand stronger government action and greater protection as hostility escalates across the continent.

Last week, posters accusing prominent Jews of “lobbying for genocide,” featuring their names and photos, were displayed in several public areas across Brussels, Belgium.

Among those targeted were the European Jewish Association’s Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Vice Chairman Alex Benjamin, and Director of EU Relations Ruth Isaac.

“When your face is glued to a wall under the label ‘genocidal,’ you are being dehumanized. This is not protest — it is persecution. And it chillingly echoes some of the darkest moments in Europe’s past,” Margolin said in a statement.

“It is becoming tragically clear that Jews are once again unsafe on this continent. We are no longer asking, we are demanding action,” he continued.

In a post on X, the EJA also condemned the incident, stressing that “this is not political activism — this is incitement, plain and simple.”

“We’ve already seen where this kind of incitement can lead,” the statement read. “In recent weeks, Jews have been attacked and murdered, targeted simply for being Jewish or for their perceived connection to Israel.”

On Friday we woke up to discovered that the faces of EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, EJA Vice Chairman Alex Benjamin, and EJA Director Ruth Isaac along with leaders of other Jewish organisations, plastered across Brussels, steps away from the main EU institutions, with the… pic.twitter.com/mR0MbT63Sg

— EJA – EIPA (@EJAssociation) June 15, 2025

The organization called on Belgian authorities and EU leadership to take immediate action by promptly removing the posters, launching a criminal investigation into those responsible, and issuing a clear and unequivocal public condemnation of the incident.

On Friday, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli advised the local Jewish community to leave the country, accusing Brussels of failing to safeguard their security amid escalating “Islamist threats.”

The Israeli official said the country is “being held hostage by Islamist packs chanting in support of Hamas and Hezbollah.”

“Belgium has surrendered. The country has lost its sovereignty and is no longer able to protect its Jews,” Chikli said in a post on X.

Brussels- the heart of the EU- has been seized by Islamist mobs chanting for Hamas & Hezbollah. Re-enactments of Oct 7 horrors and open death threats to Jewish leaders go unanswered. Hezbollah operatives operate in the country with complete impunity.

Belgium has surrendered!

I… pic.twitter.com/u3LkQaoXE8

— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) June 13, 2025

In Moldova, meanwhile, the local Jewish community faced a disturbing antisemitic attack over the weekend. In the capital city of Chisinau, dozens of graves at the Jewish cemetery were vandalized, with swastikas spray-painted throughout the site.

This latest antisemitic outrage is part of an escalating pattern across the country, including hateful slurs and threats against the Jewish community, as well as antisemitic graffiti vandalizing synagogues.

“The escalation in the Middle East is accompanied by a wave of antisemitic incidents across Europe, underscoring the urgent need for increased vigilance to protect Jewish communities on the continent,” Moldova’s Chief Rabbi Pinchas Zaltzman said in a statement.

“The direct conflict between Israel and Iran is fueling global waves of hatred and antisemitism. Unfortunately, Moldova is not immune to this trend,” he continued.

In Greece, an Israeli tourist was attacked last week by a group of pro-Palestinian activists after they overheard him using Google Maps in Hebrew while navigating Athens.

When the attackers realized the victim was speaking Hebrew, they began physically assaulting him while shouting antisemitic slurs.

Although local police arrived promptly, a large crowd had already gathered outside the restaurant where the victim had sought shelter.

At first, authorities mistakenly arrested the victim, accusing him of the attack. However, after video footage clarified the situation, they apologized and took him to the nearest hospital.

In Germany, Stefan Hensel, the antisemitism commissioner for the northern city of Hamburg, was also targeted in an antisemitic attack.

While driving home with his daughter, Hensel was listening to Israeli music when a car pulled up beside him and the occupants began shouting insults, calling him a “child killer” and “damned Israeli,” German media reported.

When Hensel refused to get out of the car as demanded, the attacker even attempted to force him off the road.

Local police launched an investigation into the attack. However, according to Hamburg authorities, there were “no grounds for their arrest.”

Peter Tschentscher, the First Mayor of Hamburg, described the attack as “another serious offense in a growing series of antisemitic incidents since 2023,” in an interview with the German newspaper Bild.

“This is shocking and shameful, especially given Germany’s historical responsibility toward Israel and Jewish life in our country,” Tschentscher said. “The Senate stands firmly with the Jewish communities and is committed to strengthening and protecting Jewish life in Hamburg.”

The post Jews, Israelis Targeted in Europe Amid Escalating Middle East Conflict first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Florida’s anti-BDS laws explicitly prohibit public institutions from partnering with entities involved in discriminatory boycotts of Israel.

Yet Florida’s universities currently maintain academic relationships with Dutch universities that appear to have withheld critical information from their American counterparts. Recently, multiple Dutch institutions — including Erasmus University Rotterdam, Radboud University Nijmegen, Tilburg University, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, Maastricht University and Delft University of Technology — have limited, suspended, or terminated their academic ties with Israeli institutions such as Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, and the University of Haifa, citing indirect or alleged associations with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and human right violations.

Notably, none of these decisions were based on concrete evidence linking Israeli universities directly to human rights violations. The mere suggestion of association with the IDF was deemed sufficient to justify academic boycotts. At Wageningen University, almost 400 lecturers even publicly refused to supervise exchange students from the Hebrew University– an explicit act of discrimination directly violating Florida’s anti-BDS framework. None of these lecturers faced sanctions.

Meanwhile, Maastricht University actively maintains collaboration with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), directly overseen by Iran’s government, which calls for the destruction of Israel and the United States. It is widely known that Iranian universities systematically suppress student dissent through surveillance, intimidation, suspension, and expulsion — often facilitated by Iran’s brutal Basij militia. Yet Maastricht University remains silent about Iranian abuses while swiftly freezing ties with Israeli institutions using criteria never applied to their Iranian partners.

Moreover, Maastricht University activists from Free Palestine Maastricht (FPM) — affiliated with the Iranian-linked extremist group Samidoun — publicly spread grotesque blood libels, accusing Hebrew University of organ theft from Palestinians. Rather than condemning this vile antisemitism, Maastricht’s administration appeased these activists, granting formal meetings and swiftly freezing partnerships with Israeli universities following aggressive demonstrations in May 2024. Yet, Free Palestine Maastricht has an office within the building of Maastricht University.

During my tenure as chair of Maastricht University’s University Council, the Iranian community on campus, Iranian students and faculty, approached me desperately, asking the Board of Governors and University Council to issue a formal statement expressing solidarity with their families in Iran — mothers and sisters protesting under the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement following the death of Mahsa Amini. (Mahsa Amini died in September 2022 after being detained by Iran’s notorious “morality police.”) I was told this request was refused.

What I heard next chilled me: some Tehran-aligned staff within Maastricht’s academic community argued that any such declaration would be perceived as insulting the Iranian regime and, by extension, Islam itself — even if no such intent existed.

Dutch universities have recently demanded Israeli academic counterparts explicitly denounce Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government as a condition for continued cooperation. This coercive interference in the internal democratic affairs of Israel during wartime closely mirrors Iran’s tactics. Iran’s Supreme Leader openly praised Western student protests against Israel, calling them “on the right side of history.” Iranian academic institutions have even offered scholarships to Western students expelled for anti-Israel activism, underscoring Iran’s strategic exploitation of Western academia’s hostility toward Israel.

This blatant hypocrisy is even clearer given my own experience: A senior administrator at Maastricht University just a week ago threatened me in the form of a question: “What is it like to be you always opposing the university policy. Would [you] not rather work somewhere else?” — implying that opposing antisemitism and supporting Israel contradicted official university policy. When I asked if this meant that Maastricht University’s stance was antisemitic, I received no answer — only chilling silence and disdain.

Dear Governor DeSantis, Dutch universities apply outrageous double standards. Throughout my academic career, I proudly taught students from the Military Academy of the Netherlands, without criticism. Yet Israeli universities are uniquely targeted simply for alleged connections to their nation’s military, without evidence of wrongdoing.

Recently, the Jewish community in Rotterdam generously offered unused cemetery land to Erasmus University Rotterdam for urgently needed student housing. However, after Erasmus University severed ties with Israeli institutions, the Jewish community promptly withdrew this offer. Their decisive action sent a clear moral message: Cooperation and generosity cannot coexist with institutionalized antisemitism and discriminatory boycotts.

Given these troubling realities, Florida’s anti-BDS legislation provides a critical framework for action. I respectfully urge you, Governor DeSantis, to formally encourage Florida’s public universities to reconsider and suspend partnerships with Dutch academic institutions explicitly engaged in discriminatory boycotts of Israel, antisemitic propaganda, and direct or indirect collaboration with Iranian-linked extremist groups.

Amanda Kluveld is a Holocaust historian and an associate professor of history at Maastricht University the Netherlands. 

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Iran called on US President Donald Trump on Monday to force Israel to cease fire as the only way to end the four-day-old aerial war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was on the “path to victory.”

Israeli forces stepped up their bombardment of Iranian military and nuclear targets, while Iran proved capable of piercing Israeli air defenses with one of its most successful volleys yet of retaliatory missile strikes.

“If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X.

“Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue. It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”

Sources told Reuters that Tehran had asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman to press Trump to use his influence on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire. In return, Iran would show flexibility in nuclear negotiations, said the two Iranian and three regional sources.

Netanyahu told Israeli troops at an air base that Israel was on its way to achieving its two main aims: wiping out Iran’s nuclear program and destroying its missiles.

“We are on the path to victory,” he said. “We are telling the citizens of Tehran: ‘Evacuate’ — and we are taking action.”

Israel launched its air war on Friday with a surprise attack that killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran’s military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists. It has said it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate its campaign in coming days.

Tehran’s retaliation is the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that missiles fired from Iran have pierced Israeli defenses in significant numbers and killed Israelis in their homes.

Iran says more than 224 Iranians have been killed, most of them civilians.

State TV broadcast scenes of collapsed presidential buildings, burned-out cars, and shattered streets in Tehran. Many residents were trying to flee the capital, describing queues for petrol and bank machines that were out of cash.

“I am desperate. My two children are scared and cannot sleep at night because of the sound of air defence and attacks, explosions. But we have nowhere to go. We hid under our dining table,” Gholamreza Mohammadi, 48, a civil servant, told Reuters by phone from Tehran.

In Israel, 24 people have been killed so far in Iran’s missile attacks, all of them civilians. Round the clock television images showed rescuers working in ruins of flattened homes.

“It’s terrifying because it’s so unknown,” said Guydo Tetelbaum, 31, a chef in Tel Aviv who was in his apartment when the alerts came in shortly after 4 am (0100 GMT). He had tried to reach a shelter, but his door was blown in.

“This could be the beginning of a long time like this. Or it could get worse, or hopefully better, but it’s the unknown that’s the scariest.”

Trump has consistently said that the Israeli assault could end quickly if Iran agrees to US demands that it accept strict curbs to its nuclear program.

Talks between the United States and Iran, hosted by Oman, had been scheduled for Sunday but were scrapped, with Tehran saying it could not negotiate while under attack.

On Monday, Iranian lawmakers floated the idea of quitting the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a move bound to be seen as a setback for any negotiations.

‘TEHRAN WILL PAY THE PRICE’

Before dawn on Monday, Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv and Haifa, killing at least eight people and destroying homes. Israeli authorities said a total of seven missiles fired overnight had landed in Israel. At least 100 people were wounded.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel‘s multi-layered defense systems to target each other so missiles could get through.

“The arrogant dictator of Tehran has become a cowardly murderer who targets the civilian home front in Israel to deter the IDF,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

“The residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.”

Katz later clarified that “there is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran as the murderous dictator does against the residents of Israel. The residents of Tehran will be forced to pay the price of dictatorship and evacuate their homes from areas where it will be necessary to attack regime targets and security infrastructure in Tehran. We will continue to protect the residents of Israel.”

Global oil prices had shot up on Friday at the prospect of conflict disrupting supplies from the Gulf. Prices eased somewhat on Monday, suggesting traders think exports could be spared despite Israeli attacks that hit domestic Iranian oil and gas targets.

Still, the sudden killing of so many Iranian military commanders and the apparent loss of control of airspace could prove to the biggest test of the stability of Iran’s system of clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s network of regional allies who could once have been expected to rain rockets on Israel – Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – have been decimated by Israeli forces since the start of the Gaza war.

Netanyahu has said that, while toppling the Iranian government is not Israel‘s primary aim, it believes that could be the outcome.

Iran’s currency has lost at least 10 percent of its value against the US dollar since the start of Israel‘s attack.

Art teacher Arshia, 29, told Reuters that his family was leaving Tehran for the town of Damavand, around 50 km (30 miles) to the east, until the conflict was over.

“My parents are scared. Every night there are attacks. No air raid sirens, and no shelters to go to. Why are we paying the price for the Islamic Republic’s hostile policies?” said Arshia, who withheld his surname for fear of reprisal from authorities.

The post Iran Urges Trump to Make Israel Halt War; Netanyahu Hails ‘Path to Victory’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.