Troops Deployed in European Cities as Antisemitic Attacks Rise
Belgium moves to protect Jewish communities after a synagogue blast, while arrests in the UK and fresh warnings from officials point to a growing security threat.
Members of the Jewish community pass Belgian soldiers patrolling central Antwerp under reinforced security measures, March 23, 2026.
JOHN THYS / AFP
Belgium moves to protect Jewish communities after a synagogue blast, while arrests in the UK and fresh warnings from officials point to a growing security threat.
A wave of suspected antisemitic attacks across Europe has prompted fresh security measures, with Belgium deploying armed soldiers after a synagogue explosion in Liège.
Belgian authorities said troops would be stationed at Jewish sites in major cities following the March 9th explosion, which MP Sam van Rooy described as “the predictable outcome of importing antisemitism from the Islamic world.”
Interior Minister Bernard Quintin on Tuesday said it was better to assume further attacks are coming than to wait for them to happen.
The police force remains the first responder … and has the responsibility for the public domain in Belgium. But we have to do more because there are threats to the Jewish community.
On the same day, two minors were arrested on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist organisation after a car was set on fire in Antwerp’s Jewish quarter overnight.
In England, too, police arrested two men on Wednesday over an arson attack in London targeting four volunteer ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity. Police say the act is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime and are investigating an online claim of responsibility from a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or “The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand.”
Responding to the London arrests, Reform MP Suella Braverman said Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party “won’t do a thing to support the Jewish community because it’s absolutely petrified of Islamists, and upsetting its Muslim bloc vote.” She added that Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan, in particular, deserves a portion of the blame for this increasingly hostile climate.
‘Sadiq Khan is as much to blame for today’s attacks as the Met commissioner!’
Reform UK’s Suella Braverman speaks from Golders Green following today’s attack on Jewish ambulances, as the police announce they are treating the attack as an antisemitic hate crime. pic.twitter.com/XUKfMeXMox
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
