Last update - 00:00 05/12/2006
Belgian youths to serve community service for anti-Semitic attack
By The Associated Press
Ten teenagers of Turkish origin were sentenced to 30 hours of community service for attacking a group of Jewish youths in Belgium, officials said Tuesday.
A group of Orthodox Jewish teenagers on a school trip to a non-operational coal mine in the northeastern town of Beringen last Thursday were confronted by the offenders, who threw stones and shouted anti-Semitic slogans.
Police intervened and detained the local youths for a night. They were then sentenced to community service over the year-end holidays, said police spokesman Marc Rubens.
Diane Keyser, secretary general of the Forum of Jewish Organizations, said she was comforted by the swift police response.
"It was a serious incident and what we saw was a good approach," she said.
Jozef De Witte, director of Belgium's anti-Racism center, said there were some anti-Semitic incidents reported in Belgium last year and he expected similar events this year.
In a telephone interview with the Associated Press, De Witte said there had been fewer physical attacks but an increase in Internet hate mail.