In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars that ravaged Europe, European leaders met in a large conference in Vienna in 1815, and it was decided to make Switzerland a neutral buffer zone between Austria and France, and since then the country has been known for its neutrality towards foreign issues.
Switzerland has largely maintained a policy of neutrality during many contemporary global events, especially the two world wars. Rather, its neutrality prompted it not to participate in European blocs, as it is not yet a member of the European Union or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and did not join the United Nations until the year 2002.
But Switzerland’s neutrality is always subjected to a real test when it comes to Israel and the Palestinian issue. In fact, this neutrality is almost a thing of the past in the face of the aggressive war launched by the occupation army on the Gaza Strip.
The country’s name was early associated with the conflict in the Middle East, as it hosted the first Zionist conference held in Basel in August 1897, which represented the first nucleus of the process of displacing Jews to Palestine in preparation for the establishment of the Israeli entity.
A week after that conference was held, the initiator of the establishment of the World Zionist Organization and the head of the conference, Theodor Herzl, wrote, “In Basel, I founded the Jewish state.”
But Switzerland, according to a study by researchers Eve Steiner and Sasha Zala entitled “Switzerland and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” has been declaring throughout the history of this conflict its adherence to a balanced policy that combines neutrality, humanitarian commitment, and support for United Nations resolutions related to Middle East issues. Was it really neutral towards the Palestinian issue?
Historical milestones in Switzerland’s relationship with the Palestinian issue:
- In 1927, Switzerland established a consulate in Jaffa, which was then a Palestinian city with an Arab majority.
- After World War II, economic and consular relations between Switzerland and Palestine flourished under the British Mandate with the establishment of the Swiss-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce.
- After the United Nations decision to partition Palestine and the declaration of the establishment of the Israeli entity in 1948, the Swiss federal government postponed its recognition of the new entity, to avoid – according to the study mentioned above – being classified as biased towards one of the parties to the conflict.
- After signing the armistice agreements that stopped the 1948 war between the Arabs and the Israelis, Switzerland granted both Israel and Jordan its official recognition in January 1949.
- In 1956, Switzerland transported peacekeeping forces via Swiss Airlines to Egypt, specifically the Suez Canal area, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Gaza Strip.
- In 1964, Switzerland and Israel signed a visa cancellation agreement. This enabled the visit of many Israeli figures to Switzerland, and the development of trade relations between the two parties.
- After the 1967 war, Switzerland supported the United Nations Truce Supervision Mission (ENETSU), providing aircraft and contributing to supervising the exchange of prisoners of war.
- After the 1973 war, Switzerland’s neutrality was subjected to a new test as it expressed its sympathy with Israel and stopped its financial support for UNESCO following decisions of that international organization that disturbed Israel. However, the Swiss newspaper Time Line attributed that position to Switzerland being affected at the time by attacks carried out by Palestinian militants on Swiss territory against Israeli targets.
- In the same period, newspaper sources spoke of a secret agreement between Switzerland and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed by Pierre Graber and Farouk Qaddoumi, under which Switzerland would provide diplomatic support to the organization in exchange for guarantees that Palestinian attacks would not be launched against Israeli interests on Swiss territory.
- In 1975, a PLO office was opened in Geneva.
- In 1979, Switzerland supported United Nations resolutions that considered that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, had no legal legitimacy.
- Coinciding with the Oslo negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Switzerland formed a group of diplomats specialized in the conflict in the Middle East.
- In October 2003, Switzerland launched the “Geneva Initiative,” which was supervised by Swiss diplomat Alexis Keller and included a proposal for a peace agreement that addressed the main issues of the conflict (Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, and border demarcation). It was signed by Israeli and Palestinian academic figures, but it did not represent the parties. Despite the official support, this initiative remained at a standstill without achieving a breach in the positions of the parties.
- After Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, Switzerland remained in contact with it. A Hamas delegation even visited Switzerland in 2012 to attend a session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, based in Geneva. The delegation also attended a university conference on Gaza entitled “Gaza… so that we do not forget.”
- During the Israeli wars on the Gaza Strip from 2008 to 2021, Switzerland’s position was to provide humanitarian aid and call for a ceasefire, and Switzerland has historically refrained from classifying Hamas as a terrorist organization.
October 7 and abandon neutrality
Researcher Philippe Beauglin – in an article in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps – considers that since October 7, 2023, Switzerland has abandoned its neutrality and humanitarian traditions, as it announced its intention to ban Hamas and withheld funding from the Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
The researcher believes that although there was near unanimity among the political parties to condemn the Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the killing of about 1,200 Israelis, including two of them with Swiss citizenship, this relative consensus was quickly shattered by the brutal Israeli response in Gaza, which resulted in the martyrdom of dozens. Thousands of Palestinians, most of them children and women.
In the French newspaper Slate, researcher Leo Pierre asks: Is Switzerland still truly neutral on the international scene? It is considered that the country was able, with its neutrality, to play a pioneering role in many world issues, such as its role in signing the Evian Accords between France and Algeria in 1962, in the process of releasing the hostages held by the Colombian Revolutionary Forces (FARC), and in mediation between Turkey and Armenia. However, Switzerland’s neutrality was exposed by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and even more so by the conflict in the Middle East.
In the Israeli war on Gaza, Switzerland was unable to deviate from common Western positions such as suspending aid to UNRWA and not recognizing Palestine. When the opportunity was given to vote in favor of Palestine’s accession as a full member of the United Nations on May 10, 2024, Switzerland preferred to abstain from voting.
At a time when calls to stop supplying weapons to Israel are increasing, military cooperation between Switzerland and Israel continues and they sell military equipment to each other, according to researcher Leo Pierre.
In the same context, Swiss professor of international humanitarian law, Yves Sandoz, believes in an article that Switzerland must restore balance to its position towards the conflict in the Middle East, act objectively and fairly in defending human rights and international humanitarian law, and work to stop the ongoing hostilities in Gaza. Which caused untold suffering to the population and a flagrant violation of international law.
Sandoz added that there is no doubt that the Israeli attack on Gaza comes in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7, which he described as “condemnable,” but the professor of international humanitarian law believes that it is a mistake to view the Israeli aggression from the angle of self-defense. Rather, it should be considered a bloody episode of a conflict that has never stopped, but rather explodes brutally at regular intervals like a dormant volcano.
Sandoz concludes that even if we look from the perspective of self-defense, the current Israeli attack on Gaza exceeds all limits set by international law.
Hamas ban law
In September 2024, the Swiss government passed a draft law banning the Hamas movement and deeming it a terrorist organization. The law also prohibits all organizations and groups that work on behalf of or in the name of Hamas.
The adoption of the law comes in response to a petition signed by parliamentarians and heads of Swiss parties and organizations loyal to Israel, demanding that Hamas be classified as a terrorist organization, and considering that Switzerland’s maintenance of contacts with an organization that aims to destroy a “sovereign state” is extremely disturbing and harmful to Switzerland’s foreign policy.
These Swiss figures believed that taking a look at Hamas’ charter is enough to confirm that its goals are identical in principle with the goals of the Islamic State: “God is its foundation, the Prophet is its role model, the Qur’an is its constitution, jihad is its path, and death in the name of God is its most precious wish.”
These figures add that Hamas has been classified by the European Union, the United States, Israel and other countries – including even Arab and Islamic countries – as a “terrorist group, so how can Switzerland not do it?”
According to the new law, some of whose paragraphs were published in Swiss newspapers, the Hamas movement is a Palestinian Islamic organization consisting of a political wing and an armed wing that was established after the outbreak of the intifada in 1987 by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas obtained a majority of the Palestinian votes in the elections held in the autonomous regions. 2006.
The law explained this success by the growth of “extremism” as a result of the conflict in the Middle East continuing for decades without a solution, in addition to what it described as the social commitment that distinguished Hamas in contrast to the rampant corruption in the Fatah movement.
The new law claimed that the founding charter of the Hamas movement calls for the killing of Jews and the destruction of the State of Israel, and Hamas also rejects the Oslo Accords and considers them treason.
Although the law indicated that Hamas amended its charter in 2017 by softening its position towards Israel, and spoke of its acceptance of the idea of establishing a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, it made clear that Hamas still refuses to recognize Israel and its leaders still call for the destruction of the State of Israel.
What is strange is that the law banning Hamas confirms that it is not possible at the present time to carry out any terrorist act planned by Hamas in Switzerland, and that the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service does not have any information indicating that Hamas possesses the operational means to carry out attacks in Switzerland or in all of Europe.
But he adds that the situation may evolve depending on the conflict, and that broadcasting the events of the ongoing war through the media and social networks in Switzerland may lead to what the law describes as an increase in anti-Semitic acts in the country.
Swiss Justice Minister Elisabeth Schneider explained in a previous statement that passing the law banning the activities of the Hamas movement would facilitate the expulsion of those she described as “dangerous” people and speed up criminal procedures against “potential terrorists.”
Schneider added that the Swiss government realizes that banning a movement constitutes a major assault on fundamental rights and could affect the room for maneuver available to Switzerland in foreign policy. However, the government considers internal security interests and the need to combat “terrorist financing” above other considerations.
Swiss researchers considered banning Hamas to be a big mistake, as it is not subject to UN Security Council sanctions that Switzerland can rely on, as is the case with Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The Swiss newspaper “La Liberte” quoted a professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, who specializes in Middle East affairs, Ricardo Bocco, as saying that Switzerland was committing a “big and grave mistake” by classifying Hamas as a terrorist organization, adding that such a ban would cut off dialogue with the Palestinians.
Boko considered that he did not understand why Switzerland wanted to take a position in favor of Israel after Switzerland was a neutral country working for peace in the darkest circumstances, just like Norway, which still refuses to classify Hamas on the terrorist list.
The newspaper quoted other Swiss analysts criticizing the policies of current Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, whom they consider to be part of an influential pro-Israel group. They note that he had angered the Palestinians in 2018 by declaring that UNRWA constituted an obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
Finally, most researchers agree that Switzerland’s new positions, which are biased toward Israel, are driven by the growing influence of the right-wing trend in the country, and that these positions will lead to the erosion of Switzerland’s soft power in the region and the world as a whole, a force that relied on a policy of neutrality and through which it was able to play various roles on the international scene. .