Belgian Chocolate and Sharon

The Belgians like to say that their country is the capital of chocolate and that what unites them with this dessert is a love story that goes back a long time, and it is one of the signs of Belgium’s pride in the world along with French fries, beer, oyster meal and waffle dessert. Any visitor to Belgium can glimpse These popular signs quickly spread everywhere, which became one of the components of the "soft power" of the Kingdom of Belgium.

There is no Belgian public or official event without chocolates present. The best proof of this is that when the King of the Belgians (the King’s official title) Philip and his wife Mathilde went to the United Nations in April 2018 to support Belgium’s non-permanent membership in the Security Council (Germany and Israel were the two competing countries for the seat) and accompanied by the Belgian diplomatic staff, Belgian chocolates were present in a regular manner. Remarkably, in the hall where the Belgian monarch spoke to a gathering of world diplomats in New York.

And when Brussels hosts the International Chocolate Fair, as is the case with many European capitals, particularly Paris, where the French Academy of Chocolate and Cocoa launched in October 2011, the International Chocolate Day, this great event, which attracts large segments of the Belgian public and its guests from everywhere, takes place in the first place. Under the auspices of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the official regional institutions in Belgium.

On the International Chocolate Day, many Belgian embassies and diplomatic missions in the world organize a reception in which they showcase the pride of Belgian industries... chocolate, in an attempt to manage competition for this famous dessert with a number of European countries, specifically Switzerland, which also puts chocolate at the forefront of its exports.

If we go back to the history of the appearance of chocolate for the first time in the world, the Chocolate Museum in Brussels, which is a few meters from the Grand Place, the most important tourist attraction in Belgium, tells us that about 90 percent of the long history of chocolate was just a drink, not sugar. Any relationship with it, which was prepared from cocoa beans, for the cocoa tree that has existed for thousands of years in Central and South America, and the Spanish explorers moved it to Spain in 1528 and planted it and Spanish aristocrats enjoyed it, and soon this drink spread among the rich and wealthy in Spain and gradually in Europe.

In 1615 AD, the French King Louis XIII married Infanta Anne of Austria, the daughter of the Spanish King Philip III, and to celebrate this occasion samples of chocolate were brought to the royal court in France.

After France, chocolate appeared in Britain. In 1657, the first chocolate shop was opened in London by a Frenchman. Many European countries set up their own cocoa plantations in countries under their control along the equator, specifically in Africa. Chocolate was very popular among members of the royal families and aristocrats in Europe, and the royals and the upper classes consumed chocolate for its health benefits, and it was produced by hand, a slow and laborious process, but with the industrial revolution, things began to change and gradually became accessible to the public and chocolate shops spread in many European cities.

In Belgium, the first chocolate store was opened in 1857, when the Swiss pharmacist Jan Neuhaus arrived in Brussels, where he opened his first store in the pharmacy in a prestigious royal exhibition. To enhance the flavor of the treats, he covered them with a layer of chocolate.

His grandson Jan Neuhaus, Jr. inherited his passion for chocolate, and had the idea to replace the delicious fillings with the treat inside the chocolate. And in 1912 he invented the first "candy" or chocolate. A few years later, Jan Neuhaus (son)'s wife created the 'Balutane', an elegant package that elevated chocolates to the status of luxury gifts. Even today; Each praline (candy) has its own unique shape and fragrance that accompanies its name.

The Belgian Foreign Ministry says that Belgium is one of the largest importers of cocoa beans, after the Netherlands and Germany. Each year, more than 300,000 tons of cocoa beans are imported into Belgium through the port of Etwerp.

She adds that the Belgian chocolate sector represents an annual turnover of nearly 5 billion euros. There are about five hundred companies active in the chocolate processing industry, ranging from large multinational corporations to small and medium-sized businesses and artisanal chocolatiers.

Each year, nearly 600,000 tons are exported by Belgian chocolate makers, to neighboring European Union countries, the United States and Japan. Thus, Belgium is the second largest exporter of chocolate in the world.

Belgium produces about 650,000 tons of chocolate per year. With 500 chocolatiers and 2,000 shops spread across the country, one Belgian citizen consumes 8 kilograms of chocolate per year.

It is reported that nearly two-thirds of the world's cocoa is produced in West Africa, where Ivory Coast is the largest exporter, with a total production of 1,448,992 tons. Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, also located in West Africa, are among the world's top 5 cocoa producers.

In the minds of many, Belgian chocolate was associated with the Palestinian leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Dr. Wadih Haddad, who was known for his strong love for chocolate. It was said that Israel knew about this, so it came through the Mossad apparatus, which, through one of its agents, introduced a deadly biological poison into the chocolate, which led weeks later The deterioration of the medical condition of the Palestinian leader and his martyrdom in an East German hospital in 1978.

In 2002, Belgium was on the verge of a hot case that sparked an interaction on an Arab and international level, the case that a number of victims of the Sabra and Shatila massacre brought against former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before the Belgian courts under a previous Belgian law that allowed the application of international jurisdiction. According to this law, it was possible for those affected by war crimes and crimes against humanity to file lawsuits against the perpetrators of these crimes, regardless of the nationality of the victim or the aggressor or the place where this type of crime was committed.

The acceptance of this case by the Belgian courts was in itself a moral victory for the Palestinian victims. This decision represents a positive and dangerous precedent, as no Western judicial institutions have ever dared to accuse any Israeli official of committing war crimes or crimes against humanity since the establishment of Israel.

This issue resulted, not only in a crisis with Israel, which almost amounted to a severing of relations, but also with the United States of America, which directly threatened Belgium with the withdrawal of the NATO headquarters from its territory.

Under this pressure, the Belgian judiciary changed the nature of the decision to avoid Sharon's trial, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who was known for his sympathy with the rights of the Palestinian people, had to back down and enter into negotiations with Israel to salvage the relationship with it.

What is interesting in particular, and according to a Belgian writer, is that among the means of pressure on Belgium that Israel used is the pride of Belgium, that is, chocolate. In February of 2003, the Israeli consul in the US state of Florida called for a boycott of Belgian chocolate because it constitutes for Belgium not only an important economic income, but It is one of the signs of Belgium's soft power, against the background of the lawsuit filed against Sharon for his involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacres, according to the Belgian book.