Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot in Brussels, September 5, 2025. NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP
An unprecedented scene unfolded on Tuesday, February 17, when the US ambassador to Belgium, Bill White, was summoned by Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, after accusing Belgian authorities of antisemitism and criticizing the health minister on the social network X. According to White – founder of a consulting firm, donor to Donald Trump's campaign and ambassador since November 2025 – the judiciary was investigating illegal ritual circumcision practices in the Orthodox Jewish community.
Three mohels, specialists trained to perform this intervention on eight-day-old babies, are under investigation for carrying out circumcisions without the presence of a doctor, which is mandatory under Belgian law. In his post, White wrote that "antisemitism is unacceptable in any form and it must be rooted out of our society" and called on the Antwerp prosecutor's office to end what he described as "ridiculous and antisemitic prosecution." The prosecutor's office had decided to open an investigation after a complaint was filed in 2023 by a dissident rabbi from Antwerp's Jewish community.
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