Belgium’s health minister Frank Vandenbroucke has accused the United States of launching an “ideological attack” on Europe’s social and healthcare model, as tensions escalate
between Brussels and Washington following sharp remarks by the US ambassador to Belgium.
Speaking on Tuesday in Paris, where he is attending a conference on European healthcare policy, Vandenbroucke said recent criticism from Washington goes beyond trade or budgetary disputes and strikes at the core of Europe’s approach to public healthcare.
According to the minister, the repeated claims by Donald Trump that Europe underinvests in pharmaceutical research ignore the structure of the US healthcare market. While acknowledging that American spending on research and development is higher, Vandenbroucke argued that this is largely driven by private intermediaries extracting significant profit margins.
He also urged the European Union to respond more assertively to pressure from Washington, particularly when the US threatens new import tariffs. “The European Union is a protective shield against bilateral intimidation,” he said, adding that European citizens should be made more aware of this role.
Ambassador accuses Belgium of antisemitism
The comments come amid a growing diplomatic dispute sparked by Bill White, who on Monday publicly lashed out at Vandenbroucke on X. The ambassador accused Belgium of antisemitism over the prosecution of three Jewish ritual circumcisers, known as mohels, in Antwerp.
In a lengthy and strongly worded post, White described the case as “ABSOLUTELY a case of antisemitism” and called on the Belgian government to intervene. He claimed the prosecution was selective and questioned why the case concerned three mohels in Antwerp, home to one of Belgium’s largest Jewish communities.
White also said he had personally discussed the issue with Vandenbroucke, alleging that the minister was “extremely rude” and hostile to the current US administration. The ambassador argued that Belgium should amend its legal framework to explicitly allow Jewish mohels to perform circumcisions, insisting that thousands of members of the Jewish community had contacted him in support.
In May 2025, police in Antwerp carried out early-morning raids targeting mohels suspected of illegally performing Jewish ritual circumcisions. Officers searched three sites in the city’s Jewish Quarter and the nearby Green Quarter, reportedly looking for knives and other circumcision equipment.
Three mohels have since been charged with carrying out a medical procedure without a license. Prosecutors believe they now have sufficient evidence to secure convictions, Michael Freilich, Belgium’s only Orthodox Jewish member of parliament, told *The Times of Israel*. No trial date has been set, and Freilich said it could take several months before proceedings begin.
ewish community leaders said at the time that the raids were part of a broader campaign of intimidation against Jewish religious figures in Belgium. Police countered that they were acting out of concern that circumcisions were being performed on Jewish infant boys by unlicensed practitioners, noting that Belgian law requires all medical procedures to be carried out by licensed physicians.
“The problem is that there is no clear law regarding circumcision at the moment,” Freilich explained. “It’s not that brit milah is not allowed; it’s that there needs to be a clearer law about who can perform the procedure.”
Belgium pushes back
Belgium’s foreign minister Maxime Prévot responded swiftly, summoning White for a formal meeting and condemning his remarks as unacceptable.
“Any suggestion that Belgium is antisemitic is false, insulting, and unacceptable,” Prévot said, stressing that combating antisemitism and all forms of discrimination remains a national priority. He also underlined the independence of Belgium’s judiciary, warning that public pressure from a foreign ambassador crosses diplomatic red lines.
Belgian law allows ritual circumcision when it is performed by a qualified physician under strict health and safety conditions. Vandenbroucke reiterated that the Antwerp case is currently under judicial investigation and that political authorities should not interfere in ongoing legal proceedings.
Accusations of antisemitism in this context amount to “dangerous disinformation,” Prévot added. “An ambassador accredited to Belgium has the duty to respect our institutions and our sovereignty. Respect works both ways.”
As the row continues, the dispute has grown from a legal case into a broader clash over diplomacy, judicial independence, and sharply differing views on healthcare, religion, and political interference.
Photo by Jean-Etienne Poirrier from Belgium, Wikimedia commons.