SWITZERLAND 2006

 

A total of 140 antisemitic manifestations were recorded in Switzerland in 2006: 73 in the German-speaking part, double the number from the previous year; and 67 in the French part, a decline from 75 in 2005. Justice Minister Christoph Blocher (Swiss People's Party) has begun a campaign to revise the article of the Swiss criminal code punishing denial of genocide.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Jewish community remained stable at about 18,000, or 0.25 percent of Switzerland's population of 7.2 million. All major cities in Switzerland have a Jewish community, the largest being located in Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Lausanne. Seventeen communities are members of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG/FSCI). Switzerland's two liberal communities have formed a platform with the SIG to deal with antisemitism and security. CICAD (Coordination Intercommunautaire Contre l'Antisémitisme et la Diffamation), an independent organization based in Geneva, represents Switzerland's French-speaking Jewish communities.

The community operates Jewish day schools in Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Lausanne and four newspapers: Tachles and Jüdische Zeitung (in German) and Revue Juive and Hayom (in French).

 

Extremist groups

A meeting of extreme right sympathizers in Tourtemagne, Valais, was broken up by the police on 28 October. The 15 participants who are known to the authorities were checked but no charge was brought against them. They had gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the death in 1993 of the founder of Blood and Honour, Ian Stuart Donaldson, singer of the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver.

            Researchers Prof. Ueli Mader and Dr. Wassilis Kassis of Basel University published the first results of a long-term study, in December, on, among other things, the reasons young people leave extreme right groups and their conduct outside after their departure. The study, which observed 40 young adults (14−34) over a period of three years, showed that most of those who left continued to express racist and ethnocentric remarks and were extremely sexist. One of the main discoveries, according to Kassis, was that those who leave the groups change their outlook but not necessarily their behavior. Twenty-five out of 40 youngsters interviewed (five times during the period of the study), claimed to have left far right organizations but only ten said they had abandoned their belief. According to a Swiss national security report, there were 1,800 members of far right groups in Switzerland in 2006.

 

antisemitic and racist activities

Various organizations, using different methods, monitor antisemitic and racist manifestations in Switzerland. AKdH (Aktion Kinder des Holocaust) records and compiles the annual report on antisemitic activity in the German-speaking part of Switzerland for the SIG. CICAD writes its own annual report on antisemitic manifestations, including tendencies in antisemitism and racism in the French-speaking part. GRA (Gesellschaft gegen Rassismus und Antisemititsmus) publishes an annual booklet on antisemitic and racist trends in the Swiss media.

            A total of 140 antisemitic manifestations were recorded in Switzerland in 2006: 73 in the German-speaking part (from Sept. 2005 till Dec. 2006), double the number in 2005 (Dec. 2004− Dec 2005); and 67 in the French part, a decline from 75 in 2005. Forty-two of the incidents reported in the German-speaking part were directed against Jewish institutions, such as desecration of the synagogues in Biel and Wittigofen. According to Samuel Althof, head of AKdH, the increase in his monitoring area might be due partly to the fact that his organization had become more widely known. According to CICAD, the decrease in the French-speaking areas may be explained by a decline in the dissemination of Holocaust denial literature Following are some examples of incidents.

 

Vandalism, Harassment and Insults

Stones thrown at the synagogue in Lausanne smashed several window panes on 2 April 2006. The perpetrators were not caught. Swastikas were painted on a synagogue in Zurich on 4 July.

On 27 February a young man carrying a large sack was reported near the Place de la Synagogue in Geneva. He shouted "Dirty Jews" to those who were outside and then rushed toward the synagogue, left the sack and ran away. Police arrived and distanced the worshippers. Police sappers blew up the sack, which turned out to be full of feces, scattering them over a wide area.

A lottery advertisement with antisemitic content was reportedly broadcast by Tele Zürich, a local TV station. The advertisement showed a stereotypical Jewish man clothed in a caftan, grabbing money out of people's hands. "No need to do that: just buy a ticket for the lottery," the punch line said.

In July 2006 a woman in Lancy, Switzerland, received a leaflet in her post box which denied the Holocaust. The leaflet with the return address of the antisemitic Sweden-based Radio Islam (headed by Ahmed Rami - see ASW 2002/3), included texts by Holocaust denier Rene-Louis Berclaz from the Swiss Association of Truth & Justice (Veritë & Justice - see ASW 2002/3).

In October, an Israeli family on vacation in Lugano was refused rooms upon presenting their Israeli passports and told that Israel was the cancer of the world and loved war and that Israelis were not welcome in the hotel. The CICAD contacted the local press and reported the incident.

 

Propaganda

The leader of the Swiss Association for Animal Protection, Erwin Kessler, compared animal farms to Nazi concentration camps and distributed leaflets to 850,000 households in 2006 condemning animal farms and shechitah . He has been tried and convicted several times under the anti-racism article of the Swiss Criminal Code. Kessler escaped abroad after refusing to pay a fine imposed on him under this article in 2006.

Bernard Schaub, a well known right wing Holocaust denier, participated at the Holocaust denial conference held in Tehran in December. Besides denying the Holocaust, his speech was virulently antisemitic and anti-Israel. He also praised Swiss Minister of Justice Christoph Blocher, who seeks to change the anti-racism law (see below). Legal proceedings could not be initiated against Schaub because he spoke in Tehran, not in Switzerland. On 29 May the District Court of Aarau dismissed an alleged case of racial discrimination by Schaub. At a May Day speech made at a right-wing demonstration on 30 April 2005 in Aarau, Schaub had said that capitalism equaled Jewish banking power such as the Rothschilds.

'NS', who is well-known on the Internet for his antisemitic comments, used the guestbook of the SCB sports (hockey) club to disseminate his conspiracy theories. NS wrote that "Talmudic misanthropists were brainwashing to death thousands of freedom fighters or strangling them, running them over by car, poisoning them or deep-freezing them." Although visitors to the SCB site distanced themselves from the text, with remarks such as "This is a hockey club and political statements of this kind are neither interesting nor relevant," the entry was deleted only after several weeks.

            The guestbook of the AKdH website was the target of several antisemitic comments. For example: "Last Saturday I was driving through the Jewish quarter of Zurich. Man oh man oh man you all look pretty vile with your hooked noses and those hats. The international finance terror and capitalism is merely an invention of yours to rule the world indirect and follow the interests of warmongers. But one day the pay-back will be on you because." The writer then quoted the words of the official song of the Hitler Youth. The AKdH has launched legal proceedings against him.

In addition, Samuel Althof, president of AKdH, was the recipient of several letters denying the Holocaust, such as one calling on him to "disprove" the "expert opinion," written by Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf on the use of Zyklon B in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

            The following graffiti appeared on walls in Zurich.

 

"Do not buy from shitty Jews"

 

 

 

Second Lebanon War

Extreme anti-Israel as well as antisemitic slogans were noted at several demonstrations during the war. "Israel Kinder murder" was heard during a rally of over 3,000 persons held in Berne on 29 July under the banner, "Neutrality does not impose silence." The peace banners waved at the beginning of the march were replaced toward the end with the flags of Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and the Hizballah, although the organizers had undertaken not to show them. Demonstrators held Israeli flags with swastikas and posters comparing Israelis to Nazis in front of the Federal Parliament in Berne on 21 July. "Death to Israel" was another common slogan heard during marches, most of which were supported by the Socialist Party and the Greens.

            On 17 August, Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the European Conference of Churches of the World Council of Churches, which represents 348 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches and cooperates with the Catholic church, stated in Geneva that Israel had planned the assault on Lebanon in order to disturb the religious harmony of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Lebanon.

 

responses to racism and antisemitism

In October Justice Minister Christoph Blocher (Swiss People's Party - SVP) began a campaign to revise Art. 261 of the anti-racism law, which punishes denial of genocide. He claims that freedom of speech is more important than protecting the sensibilities of minority groups. Since 2007 is a parliamentary election year, the issue was expected to be widely debated. The SIG has taken a firm stand that nothing should be changed and that the new law has proven to be efficient and preventive.

The online forum at the site of AZ Medien, publisher of the liberal newspaper Aargauer Zeitung, was closed down in September after anonymous supporters of tighter asylum legislation had used the platform for antisemitic propaganda. They attacked a former federal minister and a former chairman of SIG, both of whom had campaigned against the asylum law, describing them as "the deadly enemies of Switzerland" dedicated to "ruining the white race." The police were investigating.

The United Nations special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diene, criticized Swiss discrimination against black people in particular in immigration and asylum laws in a speech at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 19 September. He claimed that racism had become an instrument in political debate. The Swiss ambassador to the UN in Geneva said Switzerland's reply was to be forthcoming in March 2007, after the complete report had been presented.

On 21 September, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg decided in favor of Daniel Monnat, a Swiss journalist who had aired a program challenging the concept of Swiss neutrality in WWII and emphasizing the country's ties with Nazi Germany and its questionable attitude towards Jewish property, bank accounts and looted art. The Swiss Broadcasting Board penalized the television station for breaching broadcasting rules. A Swiss court dismissed an action taken by Monnat against the Board, but the European Court of Human Rights found in Monnat's favor, stating that his right to free speech had been infringed.