Anti-Semitism in Switzerland boosted by Palestine-Israel conflict, study shows

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Switzerland has leapt since the 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel and the Israeli government’s subsequent response against the group in Gaza, according to a report published on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

The study by the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG) and the Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism (GRA) showed the number of “real world” incidents shot up to 155 in 2023 – most of these after 7 October – from 57 the previous year.

The “unprecedented increase” in cases included ten physical assaults, against one in the previous year, the study said, along with verbal insults, graffiti and anti-Semitic placards.

“As a result of the dreadful terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October, 2023, anti-Semitism has also manifest itself in Switzerland in a way that we could not imagine,” SIG president, Ralph Lewin, and his GRA counterpart, Zsolt Balkanyi-Guery wrote in a foreword to the annual report.

One of the most notorious recent cases occurred on 2 March, when an orthodox Jewish man was stabbed and left with life-threatening injuries by a Swiss teenager, a Daesh supporter of Tunisian origin.

The incident, described by SIG as the most serious ant-Semitic hate crime in Switzerland in two decades, caused widespread shock and concern, and led to enhanced security for Jewish sites in Zurich, where the attack took place.

About 114 of the anti-Semitic incidents in Switzerland last year occurred after 7 October,  the report said, when fighters from Hamas, which administers Gaza, killed 1,200 people in Israel and abducted 253, according to Israeli tallies.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign on the densely populated enclave has since killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities.

Anti-Semitic incidents also picked up online, with 975 registered cases in 2023, up from 853 the previous year. Nearly half of the 2023 incidents were logged after 7 October, the study found.

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