Antwerp Jewish community drops interfaith project after reporter's past posts surface

The Jewish community in Antwerp was approached several weeks ago by Belgian journalist Gdija Akok, who works for a major media outlet, about helping promote an interfaith project. The initiative would bring together five children from each of the city’s main religions for a program of mutual introduction, and the community initially agreed in principle because it believed Akok was simply trying to help create positive interfaith dialogue.

That changed after community members checked Akok’s online history. According to Israel Hayom, they found several posts, likes, and comments that deeply disturbed them. In a Facebook post from 2014, Akok wrote that if someone took her land, kidnapped her father, tortured her mother, imprisoned her brother, and stole her home’s contents, she would naturally want death, and that she would join Hamas and fight for the small part of land left in Palestine.

The report also said Akok liked an Islamists’ post reading, “Death to dogs, long live the Palestinians, Palestine will be liberated soon,” and she liked an antisemitic comment that said, “The Jews are cursed anyway.” In addition, she posted a photo of a text from a religiously themed song next to an image of Osama bin Laden’s son, writing, “This is such a beautiful text.”

Akok told Jewish community figures that the material was about 12 years old, written when she was young, and did not reflect her current views. The community nevertheless refused to cooperate with the project after her involvement was revealed.