Switzerland 2003-4

 

Although no violent antisemitic acts were recorded in Switzerland in 2003, there were several reports of threats, harassment and insults. The overall total of racist acts declined from 121 in 2002 to 109 in 2003. Articles delegitimizing Israel and equating it with Nazi Germany, as well as accusing the Jews of trying to gain political power and manipulating US policy, continued to appear in mainstream papers. The xenophobic Swiss People’s Party won the largest share of the vote in the October 2003 national elections.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Jewish community remained stable at about 18,000, or 0.25 percent of Switzerland’s population of 7 million. In August 2002 the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund/Fédération Suisse des Communautés Israélites – SIG/FSCI), the umbrella organization of Swiss Jewry, set up a Jewish Forum of the Swiss Media (Jüdisches Medienforum Schweiz – JMS) to monitor and analyze Swiss media coverage of issues related to Israel and the Jews, and to counter antisemitic statements and attempts to delegitimize the State of Israel. It began working in the German-speaking part of the country under theology professor Ekkehard W. Stegemann, of the University of Basel. The JMS works in close collaboration with the CICAD (Coordination Intercommunautaire contre l’Antisémitisme et la Diffamation) in Geneva, which covers the French-speaking areas. The Jewish organization AKdH runs a database of antisemitic and racist sites, as well as Internetstreetworking, which seeks to rehabilitate neo-Nazi youngsters from the streets.

The community is served by Jewish primary–co-junior high schools in Geneva and Zurich, as well as by three newspapers: the Swiss German Tachles, the French Jewish Revue Juive, and the reform community’s Hayom.

            Following a December 2002 call by the Federal Council for revision of the law on animal protection, the Swiss Association for Animal Protection (STS) submitted a proposal against ritual slaughter, including inter alia, a prohibition on the import of halal and kosher meat. After it was rejected by the Federal (executive) Council on political and economic grounds, a National Council (Congress) committee began working on an alternative proposal, which was due for submission in autumn 2004. In April 2004 a Muslim in the canton of Aargau was reported to the judicial authorities for illegal butchering, reviving the debate on the subject of ritual slaughter.

 

political parties and extra-parliamentary groups

Right-Wing, Anti-immigrant Parties

The Swiss right-wing has been gaining ground steadily in the last few years. Although in Switzerland’s political system in which all four major parties form a permanent coalition there can never be a change of government, the October 2003 national election produced an upset in the strong showing of the right-wing, anti-EU and xenophobic Swiss People’s Party (SVP), led by Christoph Blocher, which won the largest share of the vote – 26 percent. The national-conservative branch of the right-wing to which the SVP belongs promotes a highly restrictive policy regarding non-Swiss residents of the country; this wing also includes the smaller Swiss Democrats, Swiss Freedom Party, Catholic People’s Party and Lega dei Ticinesi.

The SVP conducted an aggressive electoral campaign with newspaper ads such as: “Due to the kindness of the left-wing we have spoilt criminals, shameless asylum seekers and Albanians and black Africans who are ruling the drug traffic.”

Because of its strong position after the elections, the SVP demanded a second SVP seat in the seven-member Federal Council, for Christoph Blocher. On 10 December 2003 Blocher was elected a federal councilor, with responsibility for the Federal Department of Justice and Police; as such he has jurisdiction over revisions in civil rights and asylum laws. The political impact of his position can not yet be measured.

Until December 2003 Blocher was president of the CINS – Campaign for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland, an extra-parliamentary right-wing organization that seeks to “preserve Switzerland's independence, neutrality and direct democracy,” through, inter alia, opposition to EU membership.

The xenophobic Swiss Democrats hold one seat in the 200-member National Council. Party president Bernhard Hess, the incumbent of the seat, is known to have regular contacts with far right organizations and to participate in their gatherings.

Freedom Party (FP) president Jürg Scherrer, who was also police director of Biel, was fined CHF2000 in November 2003 by the Berne High Court for violating the anti-racism article of the Penal Code. In 2001 he published an article on the party homepage urging that all immigrants from Kosovo be repatriated within a certain time limit and alleging that “immigrants from Kosovo have a substantial influence on the increasing crime rate and tendency toward violence.”

 

Far Right Parties and Groups

The right extremist scene in Switzerland consists of many small unstructured groups whose composition changes continuously. While there is no common ideology among these groups, at major events such as winter solstice parties of the Avalon community (see below), representatives of all trends – from young skinheads to old racists – gather and celebrate. Currently, there are about 1000 hardcore right-wing extremists and about 700–800 sympathizers in Switzerland (multiple membership complicates the estimation). There are major regional differences in numbers: the more rural cantons (in north, east and central Switzerland) have a higher proportion of right-wing extremists than in the less rural ones. Skinheads are usually in the 15–25 year age range, live on the countryside or in small cities, and engage in trades such as butchery and mechanics. In the year 2003 the police registered about 100 far right incidents (not including graffiti). Attacks on asylum seekers homes rose steeply in 2003 (from 0 in 2001 & 2002 to 10 in 2003).

There are three main trends among right-wing extremists: the old right-wing consisting of Holocaust deniers, old-fascists and racists; skinheads; and the New Right (‘patriots’). The roots of the old far right go back to the first half of the 20th century. Skinheads originated in the UK in the 1960s, while the New Right, consisting of militant groups such as the Patriotic Front and the National Revolutionary Party of Switzerland emerged as of 1988. Leading representatives of the latter groups tried to recruit skinheads, initially with some success. However, since 1995 they have declined in importance in comparison with the first two very active streams.

The Partei National Orientierter Schweiz (PNOS) and the NAPO (National Extra-parliamentary Opposition) have overtaken the National Initiative Switzerland (NIS) and the National Party Switzerland (NPS) as the leading far right organizations. The PNOS was founded in late 2000 by Blood & Honour activists. Their party program is clearly right-wing extremist as many PNOS members are or were active skinheads. The PNOS, with 100–130 members, began participating in cantonal and national elections since 2003. On 24 October 2004 a PNOS party member was elected, with 415 votes (2.4 percent of the vote) to the city council of Langenthal (Aargau canton). In the elections to the National Council in October 2003 (in which 11 parties participated), the PNOS obtained 0.2 percent of the votes, a not insignificant result given that it only began running in elections that year. PNOS propaganda stresses the non-violent nature of the party as part of its attempts to present itself as a respectable political force. Typical of ultra-right organizations, the PNOS site contains old Swiss songs with lyrics and sound (such as the old Swiss anthem) (see http://www.pnos.ch/de/kultur/liedgut_psalmtextD.html).

NAPO is a conglomeration of various far right groups. Each cell, consisting of 3–12 persons, works independently of the others and is financially autonomous. NAPO activity focuses mainly on participation in political (mostly silent) marches in smaller cities. Together with the PNOS they took part officially in the Swiss national day celebration (1 Aug. 2003) on the Rütli-Wiese. Later they marched, in Nazi-style uniforms, through Brunnen with arms raised and closed fists, reminiscent of the Nazi salute. NAPO representative Bernhard Schaub is a frequent speaker at national and international congresses on Holocaust denial and is in close contact with the German NPD.

Swiss Hammerskins (SHS), the leading skinhead group in Switzerland, acts as an umbrella organization for like-minded groups. An offshoot of the US Hammerskins, the SHS were founded in 1990 and number about 50 active members and many sympathizers. Most skinhead events (parties, concerts, etc.) are organized by the SHS and most skinhead websites are controlled by them. They have close contact with right-wing extremist groups in Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Liechtenstein.

Blood & Honour Switzerland (B&H), founded in late 1998 as an arm of the trans-national Blood & Honour movement, spreads racist and extremely nationalist ideas. The number of members is unknown. B&H is not in competition with SHS; members of both groups attend the same concerts within and outside of Switzerland and exchange literature, as well as audio and visual media.

Morgenstern was launched in 1993 in Sempach/Lucerne. While the number of members is unknown, there is an increasing number of sympathizers. Like SHS and B&H, they attend concerts and parties, have a website and exchange extremist literature. They have close contacts with the SHS and with fraternal organizations abroad.

In 1998 there was a resurge in the skinhead music scene. Concerts with 600–800 participants, many of them from Germany and other countries, took place on an almost regular basis, mostly in the German part of Switzerland. When the police began to intervene in 1999, most events were moved to private clubs and are now labeled private affairs (birthdays, BBQs, etc.). Since, according to the anti-racism norm (StGB Art. 261bis), only the dissemination of racist music is an offense in Switzerland, not its possession, the police find it hard to control these ‘private events’ as there is normally no advertising.

Erwin Kessler, president of Verein gegen Tierfabrik (Association against Animal Factories – VgT) and a strident campaigner against ritual slaughter, continued to publish antisemitic statements both in his magazine VgT and on the VgT homepage. There is a link to the VgT from www.patriot.ch, an Internet platform that seeks “to inform like-minded people… about national patriotism rather than right-wing extremism.” The Patriot group had about 1,500 members at the end of 2002. Its “restricted to members only area” is xenophobic and often antisemitic.

Avalon, “the new heathen circle,” founded in 1990, regularly organizes mystical forest parties and history seminars with strongly ethnic programs. Avalon has close links to skinheads and to the PNOS as well as to likeminded individuals within and outside Switzerland. Ahmed Huber (see below) is a leading Avalon activist.

 

The Far Left

The left-wing extremist scene in Switzerland consists of a large number of inter-connected groups. Some of the neo-Marxist/Leninist oriented ones are involved in anarchist circles as well. In total there are some 2,000 left-wing extremists; the many sympathizers of the Black Bloc (see below) and others (200–400 people) who participate in specific events are not included in this number. In contrast to right-wing extremists who tend to operate in the countryside, leftist activity takes place in urban areas. Violence is aimed primarily at symbolic targets representing the establishment: diplomatic representatives of foreign countries, foreign companies, banks and airlines, international organizations, and since 2003 policemen and government officials.

Revolutionary Assembly Switzerland (RAS)/Revolutionary Assembly Zurich (RAZ), the leading and most violent far left organization, was founded in 1992. The organizational structure is unknown but the Red Army Faction (RAF) (see ASW 2000/1) was their role model until 1998. The RAS clearly supports terrorism and violence. While its 80 members are aged around forty, sympathizers tend to be 20 years younger. RAS are anti-globalization, anti-fascist, anti-imperialist and anti-Israel. Their violent actions, mostly small explosives or dye-filled bags, are directed at capitalist institutions and official structures (police, justice, banks and big companies) (see www.aufbau.org).

The Black Bloc (BB) is not an organization but a variable, heterogeneous action platform of left-wing extremist groups whose members disguise themselves and dress in black. The BB are considered a real threat to Swiss internal security because of their strong commitment to violence. A small group of some 850 activists control BB operations (around 20 years old, mostly men, from all social backgrounds).

The Bern-based Antifa Switzerland, which fights fascism, racism and nationalism, is a loose network that operates in close cooperation with other radical left-wing anti-fascist groups. They engage in research, intelligence gathering and demonstrations against youth clubs or bars visited by right-wing extremists and participate in counter-demonstrations in response to right-wing extremist events. They post all the information they have gathered on their website. Antifa also exist in Germany.

Because of the sometimes violent nature of the far left–far right conflict, with the left tending to greater violence than the right, the Swiss Department of Justice and Police considers left-wing extremists “a substantial danger to internal security.”

 

Black Antisemitism

An article by Mutombo Kanyana, editor-in-chief of the Geneva-based journal Regard Africains (47–48, Spring 2003) expounds a thesis that has gained currency among the black communities of Europe, according to which the Jews are “the agents of anti-black racism.” The theory pertains to slavery as well as to apartheid in South Africa. It appears as a motif in the act of the French comedian Dieudonné (see France).

 

Islamist Fundamentalism

The main representatives of Islamist fundamentalism in Switzerland are Sunni organizations: En Nahdha, Front Islamique Tunisien (FIT), Muslim Brotherhood, Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA), Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat (GSPC), Groupe Islamique Combattant Libyen (GICL), Hamas, Jihad, Hizballah, Al-Takfir wal Hijra and the Swiss PRO-PLO. The latter has been included as it seems that European converts have played an important role in Islamist radicalization and are suspected by the intelligence authorities of implication in the Djerba (2002) and Casablanca (2003) attacks. The goal of most of these organizations is propagation of Shari‘a law in their country of domicile, logistical support for their organization in the country of origin and fundraising. It should be noted that the Muslim population of Switzerland is over 310,000.

In December 2002 Husayn Hariri, member of the Lebanese Hizballah, was re-arrested in Morocco and extradited to Switzerland in August 2003. Hariri had hijacked an Air Afrique plane in 1987 and forced it to land in Geneva. The Swiss National Court sentenced him to life imprisonment. In April 2002 he escaped while on leave.

Two charity organizations in Switzerland, the Comité de bienfaisance et de Solidarité avec la Palestine and the Association de Secours Palestinien are suspected of links with Hamas.

The Swiss PRO-PLO, which purports to “support the Muslims during their uprising against racist-Zionist colonization” and to pursue a national rather than an Islamic solution, has no connection to the Palestinian PLO. Patric Illi, president of PRO-PLO, had close links to Shaykh Ahmad Yasin before his assassination in March 2004. The group engages in fundraising for the Palestinians and calls for a boycott of “Zionist products.” An extensive list of grocery (Nestlé SA , Soda-Club, Jaffa oranges, Eden Springs Ltd., Starbucks Coffee) and high tech (Checkpoint software, Mirabilis [ICQ], SAP, Netline technologies) products, as well as media companies (Springer Editions, NAI) appears on their website. In July 2002 they distributed pamphlets in Zurich calling for a boycott of “the Zionist-apartheid state Israel.” Allegations by the president of the Switzerland-Israel Association that the PRO-PLO had violated the anti-racism article of the Penal Code were rejected by a district court. In April 2004 the PRO-PLO held a pro-Palestinian/anti-Zionist demonstration in Zurich, with about 200 participants, at which they burned a large Israeli flag.

The antisemitic Association Switzerland-Palestine (ASP), led by Daniel Vischer of the national council of the Green Party Switzerland, also called in Berne in June 2003 for a boycott of Israeli products.

Retired Swiss journalist Ahmed Huber (formerly, Albert Friedrich Armand Huber), who converted to Islam over 40 years ago, is an activist of the Avalon organization and co-founder of the Swiss National Initiative (NIS); as such he liaises between the Islamist and rightist camps. A strident antisemite and Holocaust denier, Huber traveled the world speaking out on behalf of the Iranian regime in the 1980s. For many years he had strong links to Jürgen Graf (see below). When it became public that Huber was a member of the directorate of Al Taqwa Management company, registered in Lugano, Tessin, which is suspected of involvement in bin Ladin’s terror network, he was put on the US list of top suspects. Although the Swiss authorities have no evidence of Huber having direct links with al-Qa‘ida, he himself told the press that he had contacts with individual al-Qa‘ida operatives. He expressed his satisfaction that “right-wing extremists understand that the Holocaust was a lie” and suggested that European neo-Nazis join Islamist organizations to fight the Jews and the US.

Frank Lübke, president of DAVID, a Swiss organization that fights antisemitism and defamation, is accused of violating the anti-racism article. He was sued following an open letter he wrote, with 130 co-signers, after the November 2002 attacks in Mombassa, Kenya, to the Federal Council, the parliament and certain newspapers and news agencies “to remind people of the worldwide terrorism that is no longer restricted to Israel but is aimed at the destruction of all western civilization.” The accusation, originally made by the Swiss Jewish newspaper Tachles and taken up by a Palestinian doctor living in Switzerland and his lawyer, Daniel Vischer, president of the Switzerland-Palestine Association, derives from confusion over the word ‘Islamist’, which is mistaken for ‘Islamic’. The trial in a Zurich district court began in July 2004.

 

ANTISEMITIC AND RACIST ACTIVITY

According to the Foundation against Racism and Antisemitism (GRA), there was a decline in racist incidents in 2003, from 121 in 2002 to 109 in 2003. The majority of complaints were in the categories of verbal attacks, right-wing extremist gatherings and parades (which increased from 15 to 22) and defamation of individuals. Fifty-six racist incidents were recorded between January and September 2004.

            Although no violent antisemitic attacks were reported in 2003, there were several incidents of threats, harassment and insults. For example, for several months a young man at the CEPTA (Technical and Crafts Professional Teaching Center) suffered verbal abuse from two of his colleagues (“Death to the Jews,” etc.). Following a meeting between CICAD and the head of the Department of Education (DIP) in Geneva, the two perpetrators sent a letter of apology to the victim as well as to the DIP.

            In April swastikas were discovered on the walls of a synagogue in Lausanne. “Kill the Jews” and other Nazi slogans were daubed on the walls. Also, in Lausanne, the Jewish community offices received a threatening letter in May calling the Jews “a nation of murderers.”

In 2004, the Gan Shlomo kindergarten in Geneva and the community rooms of Maccabi Geneva were vandalized in February. Several cases of defamation and intimidation in schools were also reported in the first half of 2004.

 

Holocaust Denial

Despite the 2002 court order disbanding Verité et Justice (V&J) (see ASW 2001/2), and confirmation of that order in July 2003, the organization, founded in 1999 by Jürgen Graf, continued to hold meetings, arrange national and international events and publish antisemitic and Holocaust denying materials. In January 2004 V&J flyers were distributed in letter boxes in Geneva and Lausanne. Next to the skull heading the paper the text said: “L’Holocauste c’est du bidon” (The holocaust is a lie).

According to a communiqué he sent in May 2004, V&J secretary-general René-Louis Berclaz has taken refuge in Montenegro (former Yugoslavia). Berclaz explained that “the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro [sic] is doubtless the last European state not to have a law suppressing ‘racism’. In his ‘letter from exile’ (no. 31, July 2004) he promotes antisemitic works which reveal “the persistence with which the Jewish people has pursued, from time immemorial and by all possible means, the objective of ‘ruling over the earth’.” CICAD representatives asked the Serbian ambassador to intervene with his government to act against Berclaz. Noting that his country possesses legal instruments against racial, political or religious incitement, the ambassador said the Swiss authorities had not asked for Berclaz’s extradition.

 

Anti-Israel/Antisemitic Propaganda and the Middle East Conflict

Articles delegitimizing Israel and equating it with Nazi Germany, as well as blaming the Jews for trying to gain political power globally and manipulating US policy continued to appear in mainstream papers. In an article entitled “Europe Accused of Antisemitism” in the Tribune de Genève (Geneva’s main newspaper; 22 Jan. 2004), Antoine Maurice asked “whether this [Israeli government] policy does not in some ways recall that of Nazi Germany. This [policy] massacred the Jews, denied the existence of a people and a community, progressively but implacably destroyed their rights, [and] oppressed this people with a mixture of quibbling legalism and breathtaking arbitrariness [sic].”

In “Friendly’ Country,” Vincent Pellegrini wrote in Le Nouvelliste (main newspaper of Valais canton; 16 Jan. 2004): ‘The Bush government, at the command of its country’s Jewish lobbies for its Middle East policies and influenced by American fundamentalist Protestants who believe in the notion of a Greater Israel, supports de facto the policies of the Jewish state, as Colin Powell demonstrated last week.”

A reader’s letter from Wolfgang Guerraty and entitled “But What Are They Plotting against Us?” published in Le Nouvelliste (28 May 2004), shocked the Jewish community. It came after the announcement of the signing of an agreement of cooperation between the FSCI (Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities) and the Platform for Liberal Jewish Communities in Switzerland. “As no official political party may be characterized as either Jewish or Israeli,” it read, “the objective of reinforcing the political representation envisaged by the agreement in question can only be achieved by infiltration.”

Delegitimation of Israel and its right to exist as a Jewish state were discussed during a series of conferences (beginning in April 2003), organized by the IUED (Institut Universitaire d’Etude du Développement) and the human rights organization CETIM (Centre Europe Tiers Monde), both virulently anti-Israel bodies which, inter alia, demand a boycott on Israeli products. The majority of the speakers are known for their involvement in the campaign to de-legitimize the State of Israel. The conference focused on religious and ideological affinities between the State of Israel and South Africa of the apartheid era.

The Federation for Peace in Palestine/Israel organized a conference at the University of Lausanne from 23 to 25 June 2004, entitled “A Single Democratic State in Palestine/Israel,” aimed at “promoting reconciliation and peace in Palestine/Israel on the basis of a single democratic state with equal rights for all inhabitants regardless of their sex or religion, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.” The Lausanne Initiative, launched during the conference to further the conference aim, is headed by Sami Aldeeb, a Palestinian Christian with Swiss nationality. A number of figures well-known in antisemitic and anti-Zionist circles are on the committee of the association. They include the Israeli anti-Zionist Israel Shamir, Jean Brière and Ginette Skandrani (see ASW 2001/2).

 

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

Thirty-three trials dealing with offenses under the anti-racism article of the Penal Code, took place in 2003. Six involved antisemitic statements, 5 related to Holocaust denial and neo-Nazism, 3 to criticism of the State of Israel bordering on antisemitism, and 19 to racism and/or discrimination.

CICAD asked the director of the publishing company OLF SA to withdraw the book by the Italian Egyptian girl Randa Ghazy Dreams of Palestine (see ASW 2002/3), because it violates the anti-racism article of the Penal Code. In February the director announced that distribution of the book had been stopped.

            The Swiss Press Council condemned a reader’s letter published on 9 January 2003 in Neue Luzerner Zeitung, which advocated a boycott of Israeli goods on the grounds that Israel practiced religious discrimination.

            The Swiss Federal Court upheld the decision of a Freiburg canton court sentencing Holocaust denier Gaston-Armand Amaudruz to a further prison term of three months. Amaudruz already served a sentence in early 2003 for articles he wrote denying the existence of gas chambers.