The port of Antwerp has a notorious reputation.

It was through inspecting cargo in the Flemish city that the shipping clerk E.D. Morel came to a vital realization. Vast quantities of rubber and ivory were being transported through there from the Congo and “natives were getting nothing or next to nothing” in return.

That illicit trade was central to the plunder which Belgium carried out in its colony. As many as 10 million lives were lost between 1885 and 1908 – when Leopold II treated the Congo as his personal property – and in the ensuing decade following.

In the current century, Antwerp is still accommodating marauders and oppressors.

According to the Belgian press, the Israeli firm Zim transported 246 tonnes of munitions via Antwerp between November 2022 and November 2023.

That revelation has prompted many to protest against Antwerp’s role in accommodating Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians.

For daring to speak out, some of the protesters have found themselves effectively threatened with criminal proceedings.

One woman who wrote comments about Zim on the internet recently received a summons for questioning by the police. The woman had encouraged people to visit Antwerp port and, in her words, “disrupt day-to-day [activities]” there.

The woman described the summons as a “scare tactic.”

“They are trying to make us scared,” she told me. “But they cannot arrest everybody.”

The letter which the woman received stated that she was subject to a “category three” investigation. Such investigations concern an alleged offense, for which a prison sentence can be imposed.

In February, some activists raised objections to Zim’s activities by interrupting a session of the Flemish parliament.

The imposition of fines on protesters is especially troubling given that the Belgian authorities have been found wanting in checking what goods are transited through the country.

Hans Lammerant from the group Vredesactie (Peace Action) has long been monitoring the use of Belgian ports and airports.

While the official policy is not to allow transit of weapons for use by Israel, “the control of such transit remains lacking,” Lammerant stated by email. Checks are being carried out by campaigners using freedom of information requests and, in some cases, by official investigators, Lammerant added, “not by the actual export control administration or the customs.”

Excessive force

Protesters who have taken to the streets of Belgium’s cities have encountered police violence since the current genocide began in Gaza.

A number of arrests were made in Brussels during July. Video filmed at the scene shows that the people taken into detention were either hoisting Palestinian flags or standing beside others with flags and that the police used excessive force while carrying out the arrests.

Police had previously evicted students at the French-speaking Université libre de Bruxelles from an encampment they had set up in solidarity with Palestinians undergoing a genocide.

Belgium has tried to give the impression that it is standing up against Israel.

When Israel killed a Palestinian working for a Belgian aid agency in April, the Brussels government issued what looked on paper to be a strong condemnation.

A few months earlier, Israel destroyed the Gaza office of the same Belgian agency. The Brussels government was quick to insist that Israel’s ambassador explain why the incident occurred.

Over the past few weeks, Belgium has signaled it is in favor of a proposal that Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the most extreme ministers in Israel’s ruling coalition, should be sanctioned by the European Union.

The praise was undeserved. Belgium’s formulaic declarations are fatally undermined by how the country’s authorities are seeking to punish ordinary folk who speak out in defense of Palestinian rights.

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