Belgian police raised the houses of mohalim in Antwerp on Wednesday morning, seizing circumcision knives and other instruments in a "unprecedented" move that has sparked an outcry in Israel.
Mohalim perform the Brit Milah or circumcision ceremony on a baby Jewish boy.
According to Belgian reports, alongside the seizing of tools the mohalim were asked to provide records of all boys they had circumcised in the last year.
VRT reported that the searches were carried out at the request of an Antwerp Examining Magistrate that is leading an investigation into illegal circumcisions. The report alleged that the investigation arose after a member of Antwerp’s Jewish community complained that the mohalim were carrying out circumcisions without the necessary medical training.
Searches were carried out at 2 addresses in Antwerp’s Jewish Quarter and at a house in the ‘t Groen Kwartier area of Antwerp, however no one was arrested.
Urgent appeal sent to Belgian Ambassador to Israel, Sa'ar
Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, MK Rabbi Moshe Roth, issued an urgent appeal to the Belgian Ambassador to Israel, Mr. Stéphane Taymans, and to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, urging immediate intervention in the matter.
In his letter to the Belgian Ambassador, MK Roth called the incident "a profoundly disturbing violation of religious freedom and individual rights."
“The circumcision ceremony is one of the most foundational and sanctified commandments in Jewish tradition for thousands of years,” Roth wrote. “Any attempt to interfere is perceived as a direct attack on the very core of Jewish identity.”
Roth called on Belgian authorities to return the confiscated circumcision instruments to their rightful owners.
