Belgium’s national rail company on Monday removed a massive graffiti that read “Israel terrorist state” from one of its cars, the second such incident within two months.
The graffiti, which was removed hours after unidentified individuals created it, stretched the entire length of one railcar, featuring giant red letters outlined in acid green with thick black borders and shaped in a dripping, horror-movie style font. White ghostlike silhouettes of bombs punctuated the background, accentuating the menacing aesthetic.
In videos of the train that circulated in anti-Israel accounts on social media, travelers on benches at an Antwerp train station scrolled their phones or waited with luggage, largely indifferent to the jarring wall of graffiti behind them. Also circulating online was drone footage of the train travelling through the Belgian countryside.
Last month, similar footage surfaced of a Belgian train bearing the slogan “death to the IDF.” It, too, was artfully painted on an entire railcar.
The Forum of Jewish Organizations in a statement said it was “deeply outraged” by the incident, the likes of which “ratchet up tension in society, increase polarization and create a climate where antisemitism can grow.”
