Belgian football fans face lawsuit over anti-Semitic chants

A Belgian minister expressed outrage at anti-Semitic chants made by fans at a recent Belgium-Israel football match, and backed calls for legal action.

The fans were heard chanting "Hamas, Hamas, gas all the Jews" and "Cut the Jews' throats" at the indoor soccer match last Wednesday in the eastern Belgian town of Hasselt.

A spokeswoman for Belgian Social Integration Minister Marie Arena said Saturday that she backs a call for legal action against those responsible at the match, a qualifier for a European indoor soccer championship.

"The minister thinks it's a disgrace and underlines that such remarks should not be chanted," spokeswoman Cecille Druart told AFP.

According to the daily Le Soir, about 10 fans were involved in the chanting which was caught on camera by a local television station, and the match had to be interrupted twice.

Renaat Landuyt, a minister for the government in Belgium's northern Flanders region, demanded an investigation into a press report that those who chanted the Flemish-language slogans beloned to a local football club subsidized by the Flemish government, the Belga news agency agency said.

The federal minister's spokeswoman added: "We have to keep an eye to make sure this kind of remarks do not happen anywhere, but above all not in a public, cultural place where young people meet."