How a few ‘Netanyahu wanted’ posters in Delhi cost a Belgian attaché his job in India

On the morning of May 26, Guillaume de Bassompierre cycled through Delhi’s diplomatic quarter with a mission. The 50-year-old Belgian trade attaché carried with him nine posters bearing the image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stamped with the words: “Wanted for crimes against humanity”. He plastered them at Malcha Marg Diplomatic Enclave. 

But this would cost de Bassompierre his job and force his family to end what life had been for them in India.

Ten days after the posters, de Bassompierre was sacked by the Belgian government while he was holidaying in China with his family on June 6. 

Two weeks later, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs separately informed the Belgian embassy about the posters. According to an MEA official, de Bassompierre’s action had been in violation of the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations – a global treaty defining diplomatic conduct.

But de Bassompierre pointed to his “freedom of expression” and that his showdown with the Israeli embassy has carried on for around two years. In October 2023, the embassy had objected to his Facebook posts on the Israel-Palestine conflict. In January 2024, the embassy had accused him of showing the middle-finger while passing by the Israeli mission in the national capital. And a day after the posters this year, he had been waylaid by security personnel near the residence of the Israeli ambassador and the keys to his bicycle were allegedly stolen.