Swiss universities crack down on sympathisers of Israel terrorist attack

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

With the slogan "Intifada until victory", communist student groups have called for a rally at Swiss universities.

“Solidarity with Palestine – Intifada until victory”, proclaim the posters calling for a rally in Zurich. The kick-off was to take place in front of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and then move to a hall at the University of Zurich (UZH). Two Marxist organisations are behind the action.

In the meantime, the University of Zurich has banned the rally. In response to an enquiry from public broadcaster SRF News, it says that the student association “Marxist Students Zurich” will not be provided with premises for the event. “The call for an Intifada until victory spread by the organisers ‘Der Funke’ and IMT is not compatible with the stance of the UZH,” stated the University of Zurich. It regrets the many victims and condemns Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel in the strongest possible terms.

ETH Zurich also condemns meeting

ETH Zurich also condemns the terrorist attacks by Hamas last weekend in the strongest possible terms, it told SRF News. A call for violence and the justification of terror are unacceptable to the university.

When asked about the planned rally on the Polyterrasse, representatives said that “ETH Zurich sees the posters as a clear call to violence. It will prevent the rally on its premises within the scope of its possibilities and will expel people from the Polyterrasse if they carry out the rally despite the ban”.

The communist group International Marxist Tendency is also planning similar meetings at the universities of Bern and Fribourg. In both cases, the universities have banned the events. In Bern, the Marxists now want to meet at a different location, according to the portal IMT.

Lecturer dismissed

The University of Bern is also in the spotlight because of a lecturer who had made supportive comments about the Hamas attack in two online postings on X. The university has dismissed the lecturer because his posts were deemed unacceptable.

The lecturer’s comments will also become a case for the Bernese judiciary. The public prosecutor’s office will examine the facts of the case for their relevance under criminal law, Christof Scheurer, information officer of the general public prosecutor’s office of the Canton of Bern, said on request, thus confirming information from the news portal 20 Minuten.

According to 20 Minuten, the lecturer is said to have posted about the Hamas attack that it was the best present he had received before his birthday. In another post, he allegedly commented on a video of the Hamas attack with the words “Shabbat Shalom” (“Peace be Sabbath”). The online posts have since been deleted.

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