Talk:Antisemitism in contemporary Belgium

Problems with this article

I'm rather worried about the neutrality of this article. As it stands, it's effectively a stamp collection of random anti-Semitic acts in Belgium since the late 1980s. This cannot be useful to the average reader because, beyond confirming that a handful of nasty anti-Semitic incidents have happened in Belgium in that period, it doesn't actually tell them anything - they have nothing to compare it with. What is badly needed is some context, at a minimum:

1. statistics on levels of anti-Semitism (and some kind of indication of how this compares with other countries)
2. some indication of where anti-Semitism is situated politically (the stances of the different political parties, from the extremes to the centre).
3. Something on the legal situation might also be helpful.
4. Better sources are needed; academic studies of Belgian anti-Semitism (as a general thing) clearly do exist and relying on journalistic articles (especially which report on a single news event) risks falling foul of WP:OR.

Unless this is done, I have major reservations about whether this article should even exist. I note this is the only article with a title like "Contemporary anti-Semitism in Foo" - what "contemporary" anti-Semitism actually is is quite problematic (who is defining its scope? Academics, journalists, the wikipedian?), as is the content issue mentioned above. This is obviously a sensitive topic and needs to be treated accordingly. —Brigade Piron (talk) 19:53, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

• In fact it's not; as noted below it is in a group of geographically defined articles about contemporary antiSemitism.

• I've put a request for comments at WP:Judaism and thought it would be helpful to ping the users who have contributed to this article: E.M.Gregory and DatGuy... —Brigade Piron (talk) 16:24, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

I share these reservations. I've removed the author's political conclusions from the introductory paragraph. The rest of the article is a list of incidents giving no overview and no context. FNAS (talk) 12:05, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Note also that several sources in the Data and Analysis section of History of the Jews in Belgium deal with this subject and can be used to expand this article.E.M.Gregory (talk) 21:24, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

Thank you FNAS. Can I ask whether you agree that it would be better to rename or even delete the page, as it stands? I notice that its creator and principle contributor, E.M.Gregory, is still active on Wikipedia but has still not commented in this discussion. —Brigade Piron (talk) 13:53, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

• Thank you for flagging me. I am active on a range of topics in Wikipedia. This topic is certainly notable; the rise in antisemitism and antisemitic attacks in a country where it had been absent or in abeyance in the post-WWII period is a topic that has received considerable attention; the article can be improved. Perhaps you might try linking it from more articles, or mentioning it on projects to being new editors to the page.E.M.Gregory (talk) 14:36, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

I found some statistics on from an EU research department, currently parked in the Further reading section. FNAS (talk) 11:13, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

E.M.Gregory, thanks for your comment. Can you clarify what you believe "contemporary" means in the scope of the article? At the minute, I'd favour a rename to the less restricted Antisemitism in Belgium or History of Antisemitism in Belgium - or perhaps a merge into History of the Jews in Belgium unless the four concerns I had in my original comment can be answered. As I said, I don't doubt that this is a noteworthy topic but it's also suitably important and controversial that it's probably better to do it well or not at all. —Brigade Piron (talk) 20:50, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

I think starting this article after the end of WWII is reasonable; Holocaust being a sort of natural breaking point in the History of the Jews in Belgium. Note that we have Antisemitism in contemporary Austria, and Antisemitism in contemporary Hungary (which takes 1989 as it's starting point,) Antisemitism in 21st-century France and thatCategory:Antisemitism by country shows many countries with articles covering specific eras.E.M.Gregory (talk) 21:19, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

I appreciate your comment but I'm not sure that responds to the concerns. Most of the articles in the category you cite are simply "Antisemitism in Foo" rather than being period-specific; likewise you have not responded to why the content of the current article could not be folded back into History of the Jews in Belgium since its current problems (see above) are clearly quite serious.—Brigade Piron (talk) 21:14, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

All sources in article are specific to Belgium. Sadly, there is a plethora of material to draw on.E.M.Gregory (talk) 14:59, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

The sources are unreliable and one sided. A case in point is the 2019 ban on animal slaughter without anaesthesia in Flanders. Tom Igodt (talk) 22:40, 28 April 2024 (UTC)