SHARE
COPY LINK

RACISM

Survey claims one in four Swiss ‘anti-Semitic’

More than one in four Swiss residents are anti-Semitic, making Switzerland’s population one of the most anti-Jewish in Western Europe, according to an online report released this week by the Anti-Defamation League.

Survey claims one in four Swiss 'anti-Semitic'
Image from ADL online report showing Swiss survey results. Photo: Screenshot

The report says that 26 percent of adults in the mountain country harbour anti-Jewish sentiments based on the results of the organization’s first ever global survey of 100 countries.

The Swiss rate compares with much lower levels of anti-Semitism in Scandinavia, with less than one in 20 Swedes, for example, judged to be anti-Jewish, and an overall average of 24 percent for Western Europe.

But it is on par with the global average of 26 percent, with the proportion as high as 74 percent in the Middle East and North Africa and 34 percent in Eastern Europe.

The lowest rates were recorded in Oceania (14 percent), the Americas (19 percent) and Asia (22 percent).

The ADL researchers classed respondents as anti-Semitic if they answered 'probably true' to six out of eleven statements classed as "anti-Semitic stereotypes" in their questionnaire. 

The most commonly held anti-Semitic belief in Switzerland was that “Jews talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust”, seen as “probably true” by one in two respondents.

According to the results, 48 percent of Swiss believe it is probably true that “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Switzerland”, a view held by a global average of 41 percent of respondents.

Among other issues, 40 percent of those surveyed believe it is likely that “Jews have too much power in the business world”, while 41 percent said they agreed that “people hate Jews because of the way Jews behave”.

Extrapolating from the percentage of anti-Semitic responses and Switzerland's adult population of almost 6.4 million, the ADL estimated there are 1.7 million people in the country holding anti-Jewish views. 

The overall survey, conducted between July 2013 and February this year,  was based on questionnaires filled in by 53,100 adults in 102 countries with 88 percent of the world’s adult population.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

RACISM

Why are racist incidents on the rise in Switzerland?

Switzerland’s Federal Commission against Racism (EKR) announced this week that the number incidents of racism reported to it rose by almost a quarter in 2023.

Why are racist incidents on the rise in Switzerland?

In a new report published on Sunday, the EKR revealed that 876 incidents of racism had been reported to the body. In comparison, 708 incidents were reported to the EKR in 2022. 

That reflects a rise of 24 percent in the number of reported incidents.

The current conflict in the Middle East was highlighted explicitly as fuelling the rise in incidences of racism.

Some 69 reports related to anti-Arab racism, while anti-Muslim xenophobia was cited in 62 reports. There were also 46 incidents of anti-semitic abuse recorded last year

Read More: Switzerland acknowledges ‘systemic racism’ in the country

Another section of the report significantly identified right-wing populist political campaigns as a significant motivator of racist hate, promoted through flyers with xenophobic slogans or visual tropes. 

Discrimination based on nationality or ethnicity constituted the largest share of reports at 387 reports, followed by anti-black racism with 327 documented incidents.

Additionally, 155 reports related to a person’s legal right to remain in Switzerland, while 137 reported discrimination based on gender. 

Read More: Are foreigners in Switzerland likely to experience some form of racism?

The EKR report also identified where these racist incidents were most likely to occur: Educational institutions, such as schools and universities, were the most frequent locations for incidents at 181 reports, followed by the workplace at 124 incidents and open public spaces at 113. 

With almost two hundred of the 876 reported incidents taking place at schools and universities, Ursula Schneider-Schüttel, President of the EKR, had words of warning: 

“One finding from the report in particular deserves our attention: reports of racial discrimination at school are at the forefront this year. This is worrying.

“School should be where children and young people are protected from discrimination.

“We must therefore ask ourselves what responsibility educational institutions have in ensuring a non-discriminatory learning environment and what it takes to achieve this responsibility can be met.” 

SHOW COMMENTS