J'accuse

LOV believes that love is necessary to connect the impossible. With our candidacy for European Capital of Culture, we feel compelled to speak out about the atrocities currently unfolding in Palestine.

In 1898, Émile Zola wrote his famous J’accuse. He spoke what was not allowed to be said, called for justice, and gave words to a silence that could no longer be borne. We do the same today. Together with Marktrock, 30CC, Het nieuwstedelijk, SOS Gaza and the Leuven Coalition for Palestine, we organized our own J’accuse in Leuven on Saturday, 23 August. With this we hold our government to account. We condemn its silence, its lack of action, and its absence of compassion. We do not remain silent—because silence is complicity.

Jeanne De Vos, Anya Topolski, Jemma Vercruysse, Ahed Bseiso, Kaat Arnaert, Eva Smets, Yousra Benfquih, Selah Sue, Rudi Vranckx, Eva Brems & Martien Schotsmans, Stijn Devillé and Samier Khaled each delivered their own J’accuse. Music was provided by Ivan Azazian and Geike Arnaert. Alain Platel and Jessika Devlieghere provided context around BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) within the cultural sector.

750 residents of Leuven & Beyond came to the Olevodroom to make their voices heard. Thank you, Leuven, for being so numerous!

Relive this day with the photo reportage below through the lens of Erik Derycke

dear people
dear fellow human beings
what more can I say?
everything has been said
we have already said everything
here
now
today
at this hour
and I am not an activist
I do not quickly follow a flag
but I share the rage
and the helplessness
the astonishment
and I uphold the right to freedom of speech
and I can no longer remain silent
I will speak a thousand words
J’accuse
I accuse
I accuse the barbarians
for murdering fathers
mothers and children
mutilating the bodies
starving them
destroying homes
cities
lives
families
dreams and the future
I accuse the barbarians
I accuse the barbarians
from Bibi Netanyahu’s gang
from conspiracy to waging a war of aggression
carrying out ethnic cleansing
committing genocide
establishing structural apartheid
war crimes
crimes against peace
and crimes against humanity
I accuse the barbarians
Benjamin Netanyahu
Bezalel Smotrich
Itamar Ben‑Gvir
Yisrael Katz
Gila Gamliel
Yariv Levin
Aryeh Deri
Michael Malchieli
Moshe Arbel
Yoav Ben‑Tzur
Uriel Buso
Yitzhak Wasserlauf
Haim Katz
Amichai Chikli
May Golan
Yitzhak Goldknopf
Avi Dichter
Ofir Sofer
Shlomo Karhi
Miki Zohar
Yoav Gallant
Nir Barkat
Yoav Kisch
Dudi Amsalem
Haim Biton
Idit Silman
Eli Cohen
Gideon Sa’ar
Galit Distel‑Atbaryan
Amichai Eliyahu
Meir Porush
Ya’akov Margi
Orit Strook
Ofir Akunis
Ron Dermer
Miri Regev
Benny Gantz
Hili Tropper
Yifat Shasha‑Biton
Avigdor Maoz
Uri Maklev
Almog Cohen
Moshe Abutbul
Ya’akov Tessler
Michal Waldiger
these are the names
because it is important to know the names of the perpetrators
to remember them
and to hold them accountable
I accuse the barbarians
I accuse their predecessors
I accuse
Yair Lapid
Naftali Bennett
Ehud Olmert
I accuse
Ariel Sharon, the butcher of Sabra and Shatila
I accuse
Ehud Barak
Yitzhak Shamir
Golda Meir
Yigal Allon
Levi Eshkol
Moshe Sharett
I accuse
David Ben‑Gurion
I accuse the Nobel Prize winners
Menachem Begin
Shimon Peres
Yitzhak Rabin
they all built a country
on the suffering of a people
from the Nakba to today
I accuse
Yigal Amir
the far‑right Zionist who murdered Yitzhak Rabin
I accuse the citizens of Israel
for looking away from genocide
for supporting a murderous regime
for not rising up
for not overthrowing their own government
for not seeing
for not wanting to see
for not wanting to believe
I accuse the barbarians
I also accuse the military wing of Hamas
when it mistakes forced armed resistance against a criminal occupier
for indiscriminate terror against civilians
against innocent people, mothers, fathers and children
also within its own population
for corruption, mafia‑like practices,
the bombs on buses
I accuse history
I accuse Theodor Herzl
I accuse Lord Balfour
I accuse Edmund Allenby
I accuse Chaim Weizmann
I accuse Adolf Hitler
I accuse Heinrich Himmler
I accuse Adolf Eichmann
I accuse Winston Churchill
I accuse Clement Attlee
I accuse the West
I accuse Europe
I accuse the United States
I accuse
Harry Truman
I accuse Eisenhower
Kennedy
Johnson
Nixon
Carter
Reagan
Bush
Clinton
Bush
Obama
Trump
Biden
Trump
I accuse Donald Trump
I accuse the barbarians
I accuse the language
that excuses murder
that conceals genocide
that can’t even pronounce ethnic cleansing
I accuse a language that lies
I also accuse the language
that no longer speaks of the occupied West Bank
as I heard in my childhood every day
but simply of the West Bank
as if it were no longer occupied
I accuse the language
that labels boys, journalists, resistance fighters simply as terrorists
and I think of my uncle
who engaged in armed resistance against an occupying power
a criminal regime, guilty of genocide
he was only 18 years old
and was killed by that occupier
my uncle received a hero’s burial
a street was named after him
and even this year the N‑VA mayor visits the place where he was killed
and honors him on liberation day 80 years later
because here
now
today
at this hour
in this country
in this democracy
we owe our freedom
to armed resistance fighters like him
my uncle
they do not call him a terrorist
even though he was no more than some boys and men who take up arms in Palestine
against a criminal regime
committing genocide
I accuse the barbarians in the Belgian government
for their twisted reasoning
for the scheming
the haggling
manipulating like a devil in holy water
for continuing to defend the indefensible
for exports
for imports
electoral opportunism
for cowardice
cowardice
silence
silence
silence
I accuse the bosses in the party office
who considered a symbolic dossier like Marrakech
important enough to topple a government in 2018
yet show no flinch at 60,000 deaths today
of whom more than 80% are civilians, women, children
no flinch
at the bombs
the bulldozers
the hunger
I accuse the party office
that betrays its own principles
that champions self‑determination
when it comes to Flanders
to Catalonia
to Scotland
to Tibet
but not to Palestine
I accuse the party
that squanders the legacy
of true democrats like Willy Kuijpers
who stood up for the oppressed
in Palestine, Kosovo, Rwanda
I accuse myself
for doing too little
too late
I defend the right to peace
I defend the right to self‑defense
the right of a people to autonomy and self‑determination
freedom of speech and movement
democracy
equality of people
rule of law
human rights and minority rights
I defend human dignity
that may sound remarkable
but it isn’t
these are simply the values the European Union claims to uphold
they should be obvious to any government in Europe
we
are
human beings
I accuse the barbarians
I accuse the barbarians
I could go on like this for a long time
but this must stop
this must stop
now
today
at this hour
the killing must stop
it is time
it is time for a ceasefire
a truce
a meeting
to tend the wounds
to honor the dead
to cherish loved ones
it is time for mourning and grief
for breathing
it is time for an attempt at justice
fairness
it is time for the courts
it is time to be held accountable
to take responsibility
it is time for peace
and peace is hard work
and peace is sometimes unfair
peace demands sacrifice
it requires inner tranquility
and perseverance
breathing
it requires swallowing revenge
one’s own righteousness
peace demands a new beginning
a new beginning in equality
that seems impossible today
and it is also extremely difficult
but Nelson Mandela said:
everything seems impossible
until it is achieved
and even if a peace is fragile
after the greatest catastrophe in Europe
it has held for 80 years already
it is time
for new leaders to rise up
with a moral compass
with a vision
inspired leaders
with a voice
and an audience
it is time
here
now
today
at this very hour

— Stijn Devillé, intendant LOV2030