After receiving a formal notice on 7 July, the Belgian state has been officially summoned to appear in an urgent hearing before the French-speaking Court of First Instance in Brussels.
The legal action is led by the group Droit pour Gaza, supported by Palestinian victims, the Belgian-Palestinian Association (ABP), and the National Coordination of Action for Peace and Democracy (CNAPD), who accuse Belgium of inaction regarding alleged crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
The notice was sent on 7 July to the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Mobility, criticising Belgium for failing to meet its international obligations. With no response having been delivered, the matter is now being pursued in court.
The claimants call for urgent measures from Belgium: closing its airspace and territory to arms transport to Israel, halting trade with Israeli settlements, suspending the EU-Israel agreement, freezing Israeli leaders’ assets, and ceasing all institutional cooperation with Israel.
Droit pour Gaza has condemned the Belgian authorities for what they describe as a “culpable tolerance”. Anne-Laure Losseau, a legal expert behind the initiative, believes that the “Belgian state is doing nothing despite legal obligations.” ABP spokesperson Grégory Mauzé refers to it as “objective complicity in an ongoing genocide.”
In response to the notice, the office of Prime Minister Bart De Wever (NV-A) assured the newspaper Le Soir that it would respond “appropriately” but declined to legally comment via the press. Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot (Les Engagés) criticised the action for “clogging our courts” and called it “unfair” to claim that Belgium is inactive.
