Michael Freilich, the only Jew in Belgium’s parliament, stands alone facing this wave of anti-Israel sentiment

“All the wells are poisoned,” says Belgian MP Michael Freilich, an Orthodox Jew who has been waging a solitary battle for Israel since the October 7 terror attacks. As Brussels has crossed every possible diplomatic red line, going so far as to ban the airing of videos of the massacre, he stands alone in an uphill struggle, making the case for a country fighting for its life

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Simchas Torah morning, as Jews in Antwerp prepared for Yom Tov davening, a non-Jewish aide knocked on the door of Belgian parliament member Michael Freilich and told him the devastating news: Thousands of terrorists had invaded the State of Israel and were massacring whole towns.

“I was in utter shock,” Freilich tells Mishpacha.

At that moment, Freilich had no idea how much his life would change. His public life as a member of parliament was at a tipping point.

“After the news sank in,” Freilich relates, “I headed for the home of Rav Pinchas Leibish Padwa, the rav of Antwerp’s Shomrei Hadas community. I got his permission to do something I never dreamed I’d have to do — send an urgent message, on Yom Tov, to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, asking him to immediately increase security for the local Jewish community.”

Since that dreadful day, he has become a prominent media voice in Belgium on Israel’s war effort — a complex task. Since the war broke out, Belgium has been one of Israel’s most problematic arenas for diplomacy. The Belgian parliament and government have issued statements in line with hostile Arab nations. Prime Minister De Croo stood on Egypt’s border with Rafiach and declared: “There was a massacre, of course, but the State of Israel must not kill women and children…”

Later, Belgium would cross every possible diplomatic line with Israel. Jerusalem’s ambassador to Brussels was summoned for a dressing down following claims that the IDF had bombarded a Belgian installation in Gaza; the lower house of parliament would forbid the airing of videos from the Simchas Torah massacres; and senior state officials would call for sanctions on Israel, no less.

Michael Freilich, the only Jew in Belgium’s parliament, stands alone facing this wave of anti-Israel sentiment, fighting a one-man war for the truth.

“Since the Simchas Torah attack,” he says, “I get invited to speak on panels on prominent news shows, and I’m the only one making the case for a country fighting for its life. It’s not easy. It often feels like it’s just me against everyone else.”

Freilich, a member of Belgium’s right-wing New Flemish Alliance (N-VA in Flemish), gets some sympathy from members of his party — but he finds that it only extends so far. “They often look at the issue a different way. Sometimes they get angry at me. But I’m not deterred.

“When I’m presenting the side of the Jewish People and the State of Israel, I keep the image of my grandfather in my mind’s eye. He was expelled from Antwerp by the Nazis when he was a boy. Now I feel an obligation to him to represent the Jews in the parliament of this country that he left in our people’s darkest days.”