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RACISM

Swiss Jewish group slams Hitler salute ruling

The Swiss federation of Jewish communities (SIG) has condemned a Swiss supreme court decision that making a Nazi salute in public is not necessarily contrary to the law in Switzerland.

Published: 30 May 2014 09:57 CEST
Swiss Jewish group slams Hitler salute ruling
Photo: AFP

“We are of the view that it should be banned in public,” Herbert Winter, chairman of SIG (Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund) said on Thursday when the group held an assembly in Biel.

“We have difficulty understanding the narrow interpretation of the (court),” Winter told the gathering, the ATS news agency reported.

The Lausanne-based court recently acquitted a neo-Nazi who made a Hitler salute at a rally of right-wing nationalists in the canton of Uri in August 2010.

The court ruled on appeal that making such a salute — lifting an arm up into the air at an angle of 45 degrees with a straight hand — is not punishable unless the person involved is proven to be “spreading racist ideology”.

The incident took place at Rütli, a mountain meadow on Lake Lucerne, where federal government politicians traditionally give speeches to celebrate the Swiss national holiday on August 1, a day that commemorates the country’s origins in 1291.

The Jewish federation also deplored the fact that certain circles regularly call for the abolition of the criminal law against racism.

“We refuse to accept that Switzerland is a state where you can publicly and with impunity deny the Shoah (the Holocaust), treat immigrants from the Balkans as gangsters or class all muslims as terrorists,” Winter said.

The fight against anti-Semitism and racism is a major commitment for the federation.

Winter called on the Swiss government to do more to counter these problems, particularly through public awareness campaigns aimed at young people.

Apart from its promotion of integration of foreigners the government does very little in this area, he said.

The SIG noted that reported cases of anti-Semitism had been relatively few in Switzerland for several years, unlike in certain countries in the European Union.

A survey released earlier this month by the Anti-Defamation League, however, found that more than one on four (26 percent) of people surveyed in Switzerland held anti-Semitic views.

This was based on respondents answering “probably true” to at least six statements in a questionnaire regarded as “anti-Semitic stereotypes”.

RACISM

Swiss parliament wants ban on extremist symbols

Swiss lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of banning the display of extremist and racist symbols, starting with those of a Nazi nature.

Published: 18 April 2024 03:50 CEST
Swiss parliament wants ban on extremist symbols

The National Council lower house of parliament voted by 133 to 38 in favour of banning the public use of racist, violence-promoting and extremist symbols, such as Nazi symbols.

Switzerland, which stayed neutral during World War II, has come under pressure to fall in line with a number of other European countries in banning Nazi symbols.

Full bans are in place in Germany, Poland and several other eastern European nations.

The Swiss parliament as a whole is now in favour, after the Council of States upper house voted for such a ban in December.

The plans would also cover gestures, words, salutes or flags.

The National Council also voted by 132 to 40 for the measures to be introduced in stages — a move the government supports.

A ban on easily identifiable Nazi symbols could be implemented quickly, while other racist and extremist symbols could be identified and banned further down the line.

“We don’t want a swastika or a Hitler salute in our country, ever!” said Green lawmaker Raphael Mahaim.

“Today, in Switzerland, it is possible, it is even permitted, to display a flag with a swastika on your balcony. It is possible to put a flag bearing the image of the SS on the windshield of your car. It is possible to give the Hitler salute in public spaces.

“This situation is intolerable.”

Debate on other symbols 

Justice minister Beat Jans said the government, called the Federal Council, had hitherto relied on prevention as the main pillar against racism, but now thinks legal measures are needed.

“Anti-Semitic incidents, particularly those involving the use of Nazi symbols, have increased sharply in recent times,” he said.

“Against this background, the Federal Council decided last week that it is positive about the gradual implementation of the motion.”

He said the government wanted to introduce a special law which would mean fines could therefore be imposed.

As for banning Nazi symbols first, Mahaim accepted that debates on other symbols “will be much more difficult”.

“For example, what about the Z symbol of Putin’s army of aggression? What about the Ku Klux Klan symbol? What about the hammer and sickle symbol?” he said.

The no votes and abstentions all came from the hard-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which is the largest faction in the lower chamber.

SVP lawmaker Barbara Steinemann said Switzerland had successfully been able to keep extremism down to “a base of a few meaningless weirdos”.

She said a ban on symbols would not prevent the “rampant” anti-Semitic attitudes in universities and “intellectual milieus”.

Steinemann said Nazi symbolism had risen only since the Gaza war erupted in October, and “even if you don’t like to hear it, this is the influence of immigration from non-European cultures.

“We are literally engaging in symbolic politics, and we shouldn’t be doing that,” the Zurich lawmaker said.

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