„Faculty at a Catholic high school in Belgium said they were proud of a senior teacher who won an award and a cash prize at Iran’s controversial cartoon contest about the Holocaust. Luc Descheemaeker, who this summer retired from the Sint-Jozefs Institute high school in the city of Torhout, 60 miles west of Antwerp, accepted a ‚special prize‘ at the Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest in Tehran in May for a drawing of the words ‚Arbeit macht frei‘ over a wall with guard posts – presumably comparing Israel’s security barrier along the West Bank with the gates at Auschwitz.
In May, a staffer at the Belgian-Jewish publication Regards sent the school an email with a URL link to a webpage announcing the winners of the contest accompanied with the text: ‚It must be a great pride for Sint-Jozefs Institute-College to be associated to the values Luc Descheemaeker stands for.‘ Martine De Zutter, a senior faculty member, replied: ‚We are indeed very proud to have Luc associated with our school. His talent is of great value for the artistic education of our students!‘ Asked by JTA whether the school is proud specifically of Descheemaeker’s award, director Paul Vanthournout said Wednesday that the school had no position on the award and that De Zutter did not refer specifically to the competition in her email to Regards. (…) ‚I understand you find criticism on Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza unpleasant,‘ Vanthournout wrote to JTA, ‚but your consideration of it as anti-Semitic is exaggerated.‘“
(Cnaan Liphshiz: „Belgian high school ‚proud‘ of teacher honored at Iran’s Holocaust cartoon show“)
