Two Arabic-Speaking Men Arrested for Antisemitic Attack in Switzerland
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Zurich, Switzerland, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: IMAGO/dieBildmanufaktur via Reuters Connect
i24 News — The Swiss authorities arrested two men in late August for an alleged antisemitic attack on a 19-year-old British Orthodox Jew in Davos.
The victim said the two men, who speak Arabic and French and are rejected asylum seekers in Switzerland, spat on him and knocked off his kippah while shouting “Free Palestine.”
Peter Peyer, canton Graubünden Director of Justice, told Swiss media outlets that “we do not tolerate people who are allowed to stay here attacking other people, whether it is because of religion or skin color.”
The Swiss authorities quickly released the two suspected perpetrators, who are aged 24 and 29.
“If people insult a Jewish guest, there is a high probability that it has an antisemitic background,” said Peyer. The Swiss authorities ruled out that the attack was linked to terrorism.
Writing for the popular Switzerland-based, pro-Israel website “Audiatur Online,” Lukas Joos said that the incident in Davos “is one of the most serious antisemitic violent crimes in recent years.”
He criticized the Swiss justice system for not jailing the suspects and the seemingly lax attitude of Jonathan Kreutner, the General Secretary of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), toward an ostensible outbreak of Muslim antisemitism.
The title of Joos’ article is: “Muslim hatred of Jews? The SIG has ‘no evidence at the moment.'”
Joos wrote: “But Muslim violence against Jews is a sensitive topic, so it’s best not to say anything without hard and fast evidence. As Kreutner explained to the NZZ, you have to be careful not to ‘generalize’ or ‘stigmatize entire population groups.'”
According to Joos, “Kreutner doesn’t think anything about it. The fact that the two thugs are already back in the wild does not seem to be a ‘generalization’ nor does it ‘stigmatize entire population groups,’ which is why it probably does not affect his professional activity. And so only one question remains unanswered: Which organization is responsible for the (security) interests of Swiss Jews?”
Kreutner refused to respond to numerous i24NEWS press queries. Davos was engulfed in a second antisemitism scandal in August when it invited the reported German antisemite Michael Blume to deliver a talk on the meaning of antisemitism. Israeli government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich sharply criticized Blume in May, declaring “Comments that we have seen from Mr. Blume in the past about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and throughout this war demonstrate that he often lacks moral clarity.”
The journalist and Swiss Jew, David Klein, asked in the headline of his “Audiatur Online” piece about Blume: “Is an anti-Semite raising awareness about anti-Semitism in Davos?”
According to a June i24NEWS report, after Blume told the German media that Israel’s government is to blame for the increase of antisemitism in Europe, Roman Haller, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Munich and is the former director of the Jewish Claims Conference, blasted Blume as antisemitic and urged him to resign.
Davos-based pastor Astrid Fiehland, together with Eike-Harriet Riga, managing director of the Kulturplatz Davos, invited and hosted Blume. Fiehland refused to respond to i24NEWS press queries about her alleged role in making antisemitism socially and politically correct in Davos. Klein sent extensive information about Blume’s alleged antisemitism, including two legal rulings from Hamburg courts that Blume can be termed antisemitic based on his previous statements against Jews and the Zionist icon Orde Wingate, the “father of the IDF,” according to Israeli historian Michael Oren.
Klein wrote that “The Davos audience learns nothing about the controversy surrounding Blume in the text announcing the event” and “Pastor Fiehland angrily denies the accusation of anti-Israel agitation, saying she ‘lived in Israel for nine years.’ However, this argument is not convincing.”
Blume is a member of the Christian Democratic Union party (CDU). The CDU politician, Jan Jacobi, called for Blume’s removal on X: “The dismissal of Michael Blume is long overdue.” Kreutner did not respond to press queries about Davos hosting Blume.
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