Switzerland: Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter is widely considered as unfriendly toward Israel

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter’s meetings with the Jihadist organization Hamas have catapulted his policies into a critical spotlight in the central European country. 

According to the Swiss daily Blick on Sunday: “The foreign ministry calls for Western dialogue with Hamas. For this reason, Bern helps make the terrorist organization [Hamas] respectable, say critics.” 

The conservative Swiss People’s Party deputy and foreign policy expert, Alfred Heer, told the daily it is “unbelievable that the Federal Council’s Burkhalter does not finally end support of Hamas from the EDA [Federal Department of Foreign Affairs].” 

Heer said the foreign minister should, on the holiday of Passover, give consideration as to why Switzerland supports an organization whose goal is the destruction of Israel.
Jacob Keidar, Israel’s ambassador to Switzerland, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday: “We have been conveying our views concerning Hamas to the Swiss government on a constant basis and we have been trying to persuade them to adopt our views.” 

Israel’s government, the European Union and the US classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Switzerland is not a member of the EU and has vehemently opposed adopting terrorist designations for Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. (...) 

Burkhalter, who is from The Liberals party, is widely considered as unfriendly toward Israel. 

In December, the Swiss government and a Finnish NGO spent almost $85,000 to host a workshop in Geneva to unify Hamas with the Ramallah- based Palestinian Fatah party.

In 2012, the National Palace (Bundeshaus), which houses the Swiss parliament, hosted Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri. Speaking from Bern with the Post at the time, Ambassador ad interim (chargé d’affaires) Shalom Cohen said: “We were not happy with this development. We shared our view with the local authorities. (...) 

Burkhalter’s ministry has been embroiled in a separate anti-Israel scandal involving funds for NGOs that allegedly call for boycotts against Israel and express antisemitic aims. 

“Switzerland finances in different ways organizations in Israel and the Palestinian territories that call for the annihilation of Israel and for the death of Jews,” Basler Zeitung senior editor Dominik Feusi wrote in February. 

Since, 2013, the Swiss government has allegedly funneled nearly $700,000 to a human rights office in Ramallah that seeks to cover up the antisemitic work of its partner NGOs.

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Switzerland: Legislature passes bill to stop funding for boycotts of Israel

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Switzerland’s National Council – the lower chamber of the legislature – passed a bill on Wednesday to stop government funding of organizations that promote boycotts of Israel and spread antisemitism and racism. 

The measure will be submitted in May to the Council of States, the upper chamber of the legislature, which will decide whether it becomes law. 

Olga Deutsch, director of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor’s Europe Desk, told The Jerusalem Post: “Today’s positive developments in Switzerland mark a milestone in seriously countering BDS campaigns, antisemitism and hatred, by equating them in the motion. The motion sets an important precedent. NGO Monitor was instrumental in providing details to Swiss decision-makers regarding their government’s funding of organizations that oppose official Swiss foreign policy, such as NGOs that propagate anti-normalization, BDS, and one-state frameworks.” 

She added, “This is a perfect opportunity for Israeli and European officials to capitalize on the Swiss example and work together on guidelines and evaluation mechanisms that contribute to positive change in addressing this serious issue.” 

The measure was introduced by Christian Imark, a National Council deputy from the conservative Swiss People’s Party. It passed 111- 78. 

Dominik Feusi, a senior editor with the Basler Zeitung newspaper, first announced the groundbreaking motion on Twitter, writing “Swiss parliament approves a Motion to end funding of NGOs who work for terror, hate, racism or antisemitism...”

Imark’s motion to slash funding for organizations that boycott Israel appears to the first national parliamentary act in Europe to blunt economic and political warfare targeting the Jewish state.

The head of the Federal Council, Didier Burkhalter from the FPD Liberal party, opposes the measure. According to an article in the Zurichbased Weltwoche weekly, Burkhalter, who oversees the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, blames only Israel for the collapse of the peace process.

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Switzerland funds NGOs that call for Israel's destruction

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Switzerland finances organizations in Israel and the Palestinian territories that call for the annihilation of Israel and for the death of Jews, according to a Basler Zeitung report.

A February article in the Swiss daily Basler Zeitung reported that some of the nearly $60 million its government has sent in support of Middle East projects funds initiatives that call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. “Switzerland finances in different ways organizations in Israel and the Palestinian territories that call for the annihilation of Israel and for the death of Jews,” wrote Dominik Feusi, senior editor of Basler Zeitung.

According to the report, since 2013, the Swiss government has funneled nearly $700,000 to a human rights office in Ramallah that has functioned as a front organization, to avoid criticism by Western countries. The office is funded by Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, and seeks to cover up the antisemitic work of its partner NGOs, the report said.

Another organization supported by the Swiss government, the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, advocates a boycott against the Jewish state, the report said, adding that doing so contradicted the country’s endorsement of a two-state solution to the Israel- Palestinian conflict.

Switzerland has long faced criticism for its refusal to outlaw Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations.

In December, it participated in and helped finance a two-day conference in Geneva that included Hamas.

Other organizations mentioned by the report as recipients of Swiss funding include the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), which routinely calls for the arrest of Israeli politicians and compares Israel with the former apartheid regime in South Africa, and Al-Haq, a Ramallah-based legal center that promotes lawfare against the Jewish state.

The report triggered sharp criticism by the Jerusalem-based watchdog organization NGO Monitor on Monday, which called for reforms of the Swiss government’s public expenditures.

“Parliamentary oversight over and investigation of Swiss government funding of these anti-peace NGOs is very important,” said Olga Deutsch, director of the European desk of NGO Monitor. “Other countries are doing the same and the Swiss MPs can set an example. It is clear that the millions of Swiss francs going to NGOs, including hate groups through secret processes, cannot continue.”

According to NGO Monitor, PCHR founder and director Raji Sourani has admitted to connections with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

“[It is] alarming that $2.38 million were granted to a Palestinian human rights organization with alleged ties to a terrorist organization, PFLP,” said Deutsch. “Swiss and other European governments need to do a better job at reviewing whom they support and endorse. More direct cooperation with their Israeli counterparts would probably be the best first step in that direction.”

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Switzerland: Jean Ziegler, Hezbollah and Holocaust-denier Garaudy admirer, honored at U.N.

With the Portuguese António Guterres, the U.N. will be just more of the same...

Via UN Watch:

Letter from UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer to U.S. Amb. Nikki Haley, Feb. 26, 2017.

Dear Ambassador Haley,

We are alarmed that as U.N Secretary-General António Guterres tomorrow opens the 2017 session of the Human Rights Council, that body will be honoring its advisory committee member Jean Ziegler—a notorious anti-American ideologue who has accused the U.S. of committing “genocide” in Cuba, supported the terrorist group Hezbollah, and is the co-founder and 2002 recipient of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize—as one of its high-level speakers, together with High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and UNDP chief Helen Clark. 

Moreover, two weeks later, Mr. Eric Tistounet, Head of the Human Rights Council branch of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), will be speaking together with Mr. Ziegler at the Geneva screening of a film “Jean Ziegler: Optimism of the Will,” the publicity for which heaps praise upon Ziegler as a great “intellectual.”

We urge you to speak out and condemn the U.N.’s obscene celebration of this apologist for brutal dictators and terrorists—and to try to stop it. The United States gives some $40 million to OHCHR in regular budget and voluntary funds, and yet it seems this office seeks to insult the U.S. by honoring a leading anti-American figure.

Both of these events supported by the U.N. are designed to obscure Mr. Ziegler’s shameful record, which includes:

• In 2006, Mr. Ziegler said, “I refuse to describe Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It is a national resistance movement.”

• Ziegler has for decades acted as a propagandist for the world’s worst dictators, including Muammar Qaddafi, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe, as I documented in a 2008 essay.

• In 1989, shortly after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mr. Ziegler went to Libya to co-found the “Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.” He announced it to the world. All of this is fully documented in our 2006 report, confirmed by the Neue Zurcher Zeitung.

• Under Mr. Ziegler’s supervision, the prize was awarded to anti-Western dictators Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and to antisemites such as Louis Farrakhan and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad.

• In 2002, Mr. Ziegler himself received the Qaddafi Prize, together with convicted Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, whom Ziegler had previously praised as a “leading thinker of our time.

• Astoundingly, when challenged in 2006, Mr. Ziegler completely denied any involvement with the Qaddafi Prize. He blatantly lied on repeated occasions over seven years—until, in 2013, video evidence emerged of Ziegler receiving the prize.

• Ziegler has never accounted for the estimated $100,000 award money—the receipt of which violates U.N. ethics rules, and for which he must be investigated by High Commissioner Zeid, who is copied on this letter. (...)

• For these reasons and more, Mr. Ziegler has been condemned by leading authorities:

• U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power declared in 2013 that Mr. Ziegler was “unfit” to serve in the UNHRC.

• Seventy members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to the U.N. in 2005 citing Mr. Ziegler for anti-Semitism, and urging his removal.

• Ziegler was specifically named as an offender by members of the U.S. Congress in Sec. 501(10) of the draft bill entitled United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011.

• Ziegler was condemned in 2005 by both U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner of Rights Louise Arbour for his remarks comparing Israelis to “concentration camp” guards. His references to Israel were, in Arbour’s words, “evocative of Nazi Germany,” and “inflammatory.” (...)

• The Swiss Parliament’s foreign affairs committee opposed Ziegler’s nomination in 2013, saying it was “inappropriate.”

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Switzerland: Soldiers investigated over ‘Nazi salute’ photo

Via the Local:

Six Swiss soldiers are facing a criminal investigation after being photographed making a Nazi salute in front of a swastika drawn in the snow.
Army spokesman Walter Frick confirmed to news agency ATS that the army was taking disciplinary action against the soldiers, who have been detained for an unspecified number of days.

An investigation has been opened to determine if the soldiers have broken laws on racism.

If it is found that they have, they could face up to three years in jail.

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Swiss government denies requests for public information about funding of framework distributing 56% of its budget to BDS advocacies

Via European Jewish Press:

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), the country’s foreign ministry, has denied requests from a Swiss resident and from NGO Monitor research institute to provide public information about Swiss government funding to the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (the IHL Secretariat), a Ramallah-based framework that distributes 56% of its budget to NGOs that advocate for BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) campaigns against Israel. 

The FDFA claimed in his response that disclosure of the documents "might harm Swiss interests regarding foreign policy and international relations." 

NGO Monitor has since submitted an appeal to the FDFA, citing the Swiss Federal Act on Freedom of Information in the Administration (Freedom of Information Act, FoIA). 

The IHL Secretariat is an intermediary framework that distributes funds to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including to many active in BDS campaigns, and is managed by the Institute of Law at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah and the NIRAS consulting firm in Sweden. IHL is a funding scheme of the Swiss, Danish, Swedish and Dutch governments. 

According to the contract between the Swiss Confederation (represented by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs acting through the Swiss Cooperation Gaza & West Bank office) and NIRAS, the Swiss contribution to the IHL Secretariat amounts to CHF 3 million between December 12, 2013 and September 30, 2017. (...)

According to NGO Monitor, NGOs receiving "core-funding" from the Secretariat include BADIL, Al-Haq, Addameer, and MIFTAH, which are at the forefront of BDS and lawfare campaigns. 

"The central question is why are audits of government financial contributions to a 'human rights' framework subject to such secrecy?" continued Sacks ( Shaun Sacks, Senior Researcher at NGO Monitor's Europe Desk). 

"Those most affected by the funding, including Israelis, Palestinians, and Swiss taxpayers should be able to see how these crucial decisions are made, and how this money is being spent," he said.

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European diplomats meet with Hamas, express 'positive position'

When  the EU court ruled that Hamas was not a terror organization, European countries hurried to explain this was just a 'bureaucratic matter'.

Via al-Monitor:

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Hamas' foreign relations chief Osama Hamdan revealed that several weeks ago in Qatar, the movement's leadership met a delegation of high-ranking European diplomats. He expressed optimism about a European decision to strike Hamas from its list of terrorist organizations.

(...)

Hamdan:  Hamas is keen to maintain balanced and open relations at the regional and international levels. It has succeeded over the past three decades since its founding in 1987 to establish channels of communication with several Arab, Islamic and Western states. It now has a wide network of political and diplomatic relations, but the United States has exerted pressure on many countries, influencing them not to cooperate with Hamas’ efforts to build relations.

Hamas today has a good communications system, including many countries other than Arab and Islamic countries. It has relations with the Russian Federation, Brazil in Latin America, Nigeria and South Africa on the African continent and China, Malaysia and Indonesia in Asia. On the European continent, Hamas has strong ties with Switzerland and Norway. It also has good ties with three other European countries that prefer not to be open about this relationship to avoid any embarrassment with Washington.

(...)

Al-Monitor:  News has been recently spreading among Hamas circles about the possibility of striking Hamas’ name off the European Union's list of terrorist organizations. What is new on this subject? What about your latest meetings with European officials?

Hamdan:  Hamas has won a legal battle, as the General Court of the European Union had decided in 2014 to annul EU measures maintaining Hamas on the European list of terrorist organizations, and we are still waiting for the European political decision to implement the court ruling. We believe that this positive decision in favor of Hamas is approaching day by day.

Hamas has held a series of meetings with European political circles, most recently in the first week of November 2016 in Qatar, when the head of the movement’s political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, and a Hamas leadership delegation met a high-level European delegation, including European Foreign Ministry officials. The two sides discussed various topics, and the European delegation expressed a positive position toward Hamas, although the visit was not covered by the media.

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Switzerland: "Deeply antisemitic" sexual poster attacks Netanyahu in train stations, says Alex Feuerherdt

This was reported on Dec. 4.  Now Benjamin Weinthal helps us understand why the poster’s “symbolism is deeply antisemitic.”

Via The Jerusalem Post:

The largest city in Switzerland—Zurich—started last week to run in its main train station antisemitic posters, according to critics that sexually depict the European Union bowing to the dictates of Prime Minister Benjamin  Netanyahu.

The eleven posters show a woman with an EU logo on her white dress bowed on her knees before Netanyahu and apparently about to kiss his left foot. The words next to Netanyahu’s head read: “We violate international law by stealing land, expulsion and apartheid…Our Joker: Europe’s guilty conscience.”

The Swiss paper Tages-Anzeiger wrote on Tuesday that the Swiss People's Party politician Claudio Schmid views the poster as anti-Semitic.

Writing on the Swiss website Audiatur Online, the German journalist and expert in modern antisemitism Alex Feuerherdt said the poster’s “symbolism is deeply antisemitic.”

He wrote that the poster continues the “age-old antisemitic stereotypes“ that depict Jews as “powerful and lustful.”

The Nazis frequently showed Jewish men as sexually powerful who sought to exploit and contaminate innocent German women.

Feuerherdt noted that the section on Israel allegedly exploiting Europe’s guilt due to the Holocaust is an expression of antisemitism because the poster relies on typical stereotypes that Jews are only interested in "walking over corpses to gain personal advantage.” 

Feuerherdt argues that the posters also aim to dismantle the Jewish state because its message is to show Israel as an illegal enterprise.

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Switzerland: Antisemitic banner displayed at train station

Via Everyday Antisemitism:

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs has intervened after an antisemitic placard was displayed at a Swiss train station.

The advert at the main train station in Zurich shows a girl, who symbolises Europe, kneeling to kiss the feet of Benjamin Netanyahu. The Ministry have requested that the poster is removed.

The image is accompanied with text which translates to “We are breaking the international law by stealing land, expulsion and apartheid but our joker is the conscience of Europe”.

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Switzerland: Government wants Jews to fund their own security costs

Via Times of Israel:

Switzerland’s Jews need to fund their own security costs even though doing so is really the government’s responsibility, a Swiss government agency said in a report on anti-Semitism.

The unusual assertion came in a report published last week by the Swiss interior ministry’s Service for the Fight against Racism. It prompted a mixed reaction by the country’s Jewish communities, who welcomed the report’s naming of the problem but criticized its failure to offer alternative solutions.

“Where credible indications suggest that the Jewish community, Jews or Jewish institution may be targeted in violent attacks, the state — meaning the federal confederation or its cantons — is positively duty bound to offer protection and guarantee individual safety, even at the expense of elevated expenditure of human of financial resources,” states the 18-page document, entitled “Report on the measures taken by the federal state to combat anti-Semitism in Switzerland.”

And while Swiss Jews are at such risk, “there is no constitutional or legal basis permitting the participation of the federal state in the costs of security costs to protect Jewish institution.” Therefore, “Jewish organizations could create a foundation for financing their security costs,” the document goes on to recommend.

On Thursday, the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities criticized the report in a statement titled “Jewish groups remind the federal state of its duties.”

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Switzerland: Arab-Israeli MK calls to "do away with Zionism and the Jewish state"

Hanin Zoabi's idea to destroy the Jewish state was presented at the Swiss Palestine Association in Bern and was received approvingly by the audience.

Via Hamodia (h/t Elder of Ziyon):

United Arab List MK Hanin Zoabi is a staunch believer in the two-state solution...with one state for Palestinians, and the other a “a secular democratic state of all its citizens,” with the concept of a Jewish state banned altogether.

If the two states decided to unite into one at some point, that would be fine, she added. “My vision is justice and liberation,” she said. “The exact formula – one state or two – is a technical question, as far as I am concerned. But neither of them can be a Jewish state. My party advocates a two-state solution – one a democratic state of all its citizens, with a Palestinian state next to it.” The “right of return” for the descendants of Arabs from within the Green Line would apply as well, she added.

“If these two states build relations and eventually decide to unite, that would be possible,” she said. “But we cannot have one state under the current circumstances with the settlers remaining in the West Bank. We must do away with Zionism and the Jewish state, and then we can decide how to set up the states – one or two of them, I personally don’t care.”

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Switzerland: Israel deports Rita Faye notorious BDS activist

Israel National News reports:

For the first time, a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist was on Tuesday deported from Israel, Channel 2 News reports.

Soon after she landed at the Ben Gurion International Airport, the activist from Switzerland, who is a member of a Christian organization which works in cooperation with the BDS movement, was taken in for questioning and then deported, after Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) issued a deportation order against her.

According to Channel 2 News the activist, Rita Faye, visited Israel several times in the past and is known to the IDF mainly from her activities at checkpoints in the Jericho area. In the past, Faye would harass the soldiers stationed in the area and record their activities. She would then send the information she collected abroad.  The deportation order was issued by Deri after the IDF received information that she intends to return to Israel, the report said.

This marks the first time that a deportation order has been issued against BDS activists who hail from Europe. Officials in the Interior Ministry officials said there is a possibility that deportation orders against BDS activists will be adopted as a method to fight organizations calling for a boycott of Israel.

Switzerland: Journalist compares hatred of Russians to hatred of Jews

Via Pravada Report:

In May 2015, Geneva-based publishing house Editions des Syrtes published a bestselling book by well-known journalist and writer Guy Mettan titled "West - Russia: The Thousand-Year History of War Russophobia from Charlemagne to the Ukrainian Crisis."

The word combination "bestselling book" means here that the circulation of 3,000 copies of the French version of the book was sold out instantly. A "bombshell" would be too weak a word to describe the controversy that the book by this veteran journalist caused.

Although, as the author himself admits, in France, they tried to pretend that they did not notice the book. In Switzerland, Mettan's home country, on the contrary, people and major media outlets showed great interest in the work.

(...)

Guy Mettan pointed out a similarity between the persecution of Jews and hatred of Russians throughout history. "In essence, Russophobia is akin to anti-Semitism,  although, of course, this is not the same. Like anti-Semitism, Russophobia is not a temporary phenomenon associated with certain historical events. Like anti-Semitism, it is rooted primarily in the brain, regardless of how the object of dislike actually behaves. Like anti-Semitism, Russophobia seeks to build certain negative properties of an object of hate into a principle. In our case, it goes about such properties as barbarism, despotism, territorial expansion."

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Switzerland: Parliament launches inquiry into anti-Israel NGOs

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has allocated funds in the millions to anti-Israel NGOs linked to terrorism and working in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, according to a report that appeared in Switzerland’s Basler Zeitung on Monday.

The front-page story by veteran journalist Dominik Feusi, headlined “Resistance in Parliament against money for Israel-critical campaigns,” stated that MP Christian Imark had introduced a motion supported by 41 lawmakers from across the political spectrum calling on the FDFA to stop all direct or indirect funding to organizations that sponsor “racist and anti-Semitic actions” or are involved in BDS campaigns.

The move could bring about a sea change in Swiss funding for scores of anti-Israel NGOs operating in Israel and in the disputed territories.

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, spoke with the The Jerusalem Post about the development.

“The detailed and unprecedented article... reflects the concerns of many MPs in Switzerland, who were surprised to learn of the very negative and counterproductive impact of their government’s funding for radical anti-peace NGOs,” Steinberg stated.

“As in the case of the EU and many individual states, the funding process, which supports Al-Haq [an NGO based in Ramallah] – the leader of the 'lawfare' campaign – and Breaking the Silence, as well as other Israeli groups, has been strictly hidden from the media and MPs until now,” he said.

Steinberg, along with Olga Deutsch, head of NGO Monitor’s Europe research desk, briefed Swiss MPs in Bern in March on the alleged misconduct of certain NGOs and their financial irregularities.

“As noted in the [Basler] article, additional Swiss funding goes to Islamic Relief Worldwide,” he continued. “Earlier this year, HSBC cut all ties to this NGO due to concerns about its involvement in terrorism. Israel declared IRW a terrorist-supporting entity in 2014, citing funding to Hamas. The Swiss government must now review this funding.”

The article alleged that the FDFA funneled the equivalent of nearly $182,000 to the IRW last year. It also noted that Swiss funds had been sent directly or indirectly to 44 NGOs that “are opposed to negotiations with Israel and peace, and work for a boycott of Israeli products.” [...]


According to the article, the Bundesrat, the executive council of the Swiss government, is required to respond to the motion submitted by the MPs.

“The revelations include cases of ‘double dipping’ – funding from different Swiss government agencies for the same NGOs, which was made possible by extreme secrecy,” Steinberg added.

 He added that Swiss public debate that crosses party and ideological lines has helped spark similar debates now taking place in Holland, Denmark and other countries that might be involved in the large-scale funding of radical NGOs. 

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Switzerland: Museums under pressure over art that Jews were forced to sell

Via The Art Newspaper:

Pressure is growing on Swiss museums to accept that works of art sold by Jewish refugees to help them escape from the Nazis were forced sales, and that the works should therefore be returned to their heirs. Speaking in Zurich last month, Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, proposed a plan of action, which he described as “long overdue”.

Lauder said he had turned his attention to Switzerland after Cornelius Gurlitt bequeathed his entire collection—some of which had been looted from Jews by the Nazis—to the Bern Kunstmuseum. The museum has said it will refuse to accept any Gurlitt works with tainted or unclear provenance, and that they will remain in Germany for further research.

Whereas the German government has pledged to return any art in Gurlitt’s hoard that had been “lost due to Nazi persecution”, Swiss museums have traditionally rejected claims for what they term fluchtgut (flight assets)—art sold by Jewish refugees to fund their escape or to start new lives after losing the rest of their possessions, their homes and their livelihoods under the Nazis.

One of Lauder’s demands was that Switzerland treat fluchtgut claims in the same way as claims for looted art. “Could it possibly make any difference if the painting was taken off the wall by a Nazi or if its Jewish owner was forced to sell that same painting to one of Hitler’s art dealers for almost nothing?” he asked in his speech at Zurich’s Kunsthaus on 2 February.

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Switzerland: Islamists, left-wing and right-wing extremists are united by their hatred of Jews

Via Tagesanzeiger (h/t Honestly Concerned):

Daniel Rickenbacher , researcher of extremism, says the Jewish community of Zurich is not overreacting when it invests in bulletproof glass, guards and barriers around the Jewish institutions.  The current investment is barely adequate, he says, and th financial burden is soldiered solely by the Jewish community.

Islamists, left-wing and right-wing extremists are united by their hatred of Jews.  In the 1950s and 1960s, antisemitism was mostly right-wing.  Starting in the late 60s, it became increasingly acceptable in leftist circles.  Neo-Nazis were still a strong presence in the 1990s, but their significance has declined since.  The greatest threat is today is from Islamist circles.

Sometimes there are unholy alliances, for example, when leftists and Islamists organize joint pro-Palestinian demonstrations.  That's a phenomenon that occurs throughout Europe.  A typical example is the Respect Party in Britain which was founded by the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.  They are united by seeing Jews an the West as an enemy, or by an antisemitic anti-capitalism where they see Jews as super-capitalists.

Neo-Nazis also ally with antisemitic Muslims.  For example, Ahmed Huber, a Swiss Holocaust denier, had converted to Islam.  Right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists also love Iran, which is revered as anti-Western and anti-Jewish force.  But such alliances usually fail when the right-wing extremists are faced with Muslim immigration.

Switzerland: Young Socialists post 'Jewish lobby' cartoon (UPDATE: apology)

Via BLICK:
 
JUSO (Young Socialists Switzerland) is a youth organization connected to the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland.


Recently they posted the antisemitic cartoon above on their Facebook page.   It shows President and Commerce Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann feeding a fat Jewish man, who has a large nose and sidelocks.   Schneider-Ammann says ".. and a spoon for... the international financial lobby".  The hungry child next to him gets nothing.


JUSO removed the cartoon and published a statement saying that they understood that the cartoon could be interpreted in an antisemitic way and that this in no way reflects on their basic values.   They apologize without reservation and assure everybody that there were no antisemitic intentions behind it.


Update: apology text via Haaretz:

“We understand that the cartoon allows for an interpretation through anti-Semitic codes and stereotypes that absolutely do not correspond with JUSO’s basic values,” the organization wrote in a statement on Jan. 23. ”We would like to apologize unreservedly for this regrettable error and affirm that there was no intention to reproduce anti-Semitism.”

Switzerland: Gov't capitulated to terror, agreed to support Palestinian cause

Via SwissInfo:

Switzerland and the militant Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) concluded a secret deal in 1970 to avert further terrorist attacks against the country.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper says a delegation led by Foreign Minister Pierre Graber met senior PLO officials in Geneva to negotiate a pact offering diplomatic support for the Palestinian cause in return for assurances to be spared from attacks.

The first contacts between the Swiss minister and the Palestinians was initiated by Jean Ziegler, according to the NZZ. The controversial leftwing human rights advocate was a member of the Swiss parliament at the time.

The confidential negotiations risked creating a diplomatic crisis with the United States, Britain, Germany and Israel, according to the report.

Details of the agreement are still locked away under a 50-year statute of limitations.

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Switzerland: Antisemitic pamphlets handed out

Via CFCA:

Antisemitic pamphlets were handed out in mailboxes in Kreuzlingen.

The pamphlets stated that the Holocaust is a lie which has been spread by Zionists in order to extort money from Germany.  The author quotes various the (Christian) Bible to prove his point that Jews are of the devil.

Switzerland: Famous imam Hani Ramadan hints Mossad behind Paris terrorist attacks

Conspiracy Watch reports that Hani Ramadan, who heads the Islamic Centre of Geneva, has indicated that the Paris terror attacks perpetrated by Muslims had nothing to do with Islam and hinted that the Mossad might be behind the butchery.  "Let's start monitoring the Mossad," he said on November 18.

Wikipedia: Hani Ramadan:

"Hani Ramadan has recently attracted the attention of the press and Swiss authorities by virtue of his radical statements such as that expressed at the 2014 meeting of the Union of Islamic Organizations in France, when he stated: "All the evil in the world originates from the Jews and the Zionist barbarism."

Hani Ramadan is the brother of Tariq Ramadan, the darling of the Belgian media, academia and political establishment.  He has never distanced himself from his brother's views.  He is yet again invited to Brussels to the BOZAR and was a keynote speaker at the prestigious Belgian Royal Academy on freedom of speech...

Alan Johnson writes in the Telegraph: "according to the US essayist Paul Berman “Ramadan reveres [the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide], Sheikh al Qaradawi above all other present-day Islamic scholars, and in one book after another he has left no room for doubt about his fealty. If anyone in the world offers a model of modern enlightened Islam, Ramadan plainly judges Qaradawi to be that person.” That’s the same Qaradawi who, as Peter Tatchell points out, “condones suicide bombing, the killing of civilians, female genital mutilation, forced veiling, wife-beating and the killing of Muslims who turn away from their faith. He also blames rape victims who dress immodestly and supports the execution of LGBT people.”


Hassan al Banna, who in 1928 founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, is their grand-father.