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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