Anti-Semitic incidents increased by 68% in French-speaking Switzerland last year, according to CICAD, an organisation dedicated to fighting anti-semitism. The number of serious attacks in 2023 was seven times the number in 2022. Almost half of these acts occurred after the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel.
During 2023, the Intercommunal Coordination Office against Anti-Semitism and Defamation (CICAD) received 944 reports of anti-Semitic acts across French-speaking Switzerland, a number 68% higher than the 562 recorded in 2022. Since 7 October 2023 when Israel was attacked by Hamas there have been around 150 incidents a month, roughly 5 a day. Before this date there were around 40 a month.
During the year there were 78 serious incidents. Among these were 33 incidents of anti-semitic graffiti, including spray painted swastikas and slogans thanking Hamas, along with pasted up copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fictitious slanderous document inciting hatred of jews. In addition, 12 emails were sent to Swiss universities promoting holocaust denial.
During the year, 22 even more serious acts were recorded across the year, some committed against school children. Among them, the windows of a synagogue in La Chaux-de-Fonds were smashed with blocks of ice and snow, a woman’s door was forced open and painted with a star of David and numerous people were subjected to anti-semitic insults. For example a school pupil was sprayed with deodorant by another pupil who threatened to “gas him like all jews” and a taxi driver yelled “Hitler should have finished the job” at a group of Israelis.
According to CICAD, holocaust memorials, federal elections and conflict in the middle east, which took place in 2023, have been used as pretexts for anti-semitism. The presence of Dieudonné, a French actor convicted of anti-semitism, in Geneva along with the trial of Tariq Ramadan, a controversial Swiss Muslim academic, have acted as triggers for anti-semitic acts.
CICAD said it would welcome a legal ban on nazi symbols in public spaces. It also called on Switzerland’s authorities to take increased political, legal and educational measures to combat anti-semitism.
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CICAD report (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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