On Ink and blood: the false outrage against Herman Brusselmans.

Herman Brusselmans, a Belgian writer renowned for his provocative and controversial style, is currently facing an intense backlash led by an Israeli campaign. ​Brusselmans, who writes novels and litterary columns, is known for his use of extreme and shocking statements and imagery in his work.

This week, in a column, and in his characteristically provocative style, Brusselmans imagined that the slaughtered children in Gaza were his own child, expressing the profound grief, anger and urge for revenge that parents feel when their children are slaughtered. He then describes that anger and urge to revenge making him want to stab every Jew he sees in the neck. Sure this is provocative and shocking, but this is also litterature. This is not a call to violence, but a metaphorical outcry against it—a literary device. You can like his style or not, and I am personally not a fan, but this is a matter of opinion and taste. The fact remains, Brusselmans does not write political essays or analytical articles, he writes satirical litterary columns.


The hypocrisy is astounding. Those who support or ignore the genocide in Gaza are the first to condemn a writer for using metaphor and hyperbole to expose their moral bankruptcy. These same people who once claimed to stand for freedom of speech with "Je suis Charlie" now attempt to silence anyone who challenges their narrative.


The Israeli ambassador, leading and instigating this frenzy, attempts to stifle dissent while her government is committing a genocide. This genocidal creature thinks that she gets to decide what is acceptable litterature?
Brusselmans and his style were never my cup of tea. I do not like the guy and his style, and he does not like me (he is on the record calling me an asshole), but the only just position and the only freedom loving position in this is to say #JeSuisHermanBrusselmans.
Why? Because of #FreedomOfSpeech and because the only acceptable indignation in this debate, in times of genocide, should not target litterature that is contesting this genocide in any way, but those who commit the genocide and their stooges.