Swiss take a firm line with Israel

Relations between Israel and Switzerland are being put to the test swissinfo.ch

The Swiss ambassador to Israel has boycotted a ceremony to name a street after a Swiss who helped save Jews during the Second World War.

In a separate move Bern also condemned the execution of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi by Israeli security forces.

The ceremony, which took place on Monday, was to honour Paul Grüninger, a former St Gallen police chief who used his position to help Jewish refugees enter Switzerland.

Ernst Iten, the Swiss ambassador to Israel, had been invited to attend by Uri Lupolianski, the mayor of Jerusalem. The street naming was part of the Holocaust Remembrance Day.

But Iten refused the invitation on the grounds that the street is in northern Jerusalem, an area that was annexed by Israel in 1967.

“With your act you want to honour a Swiss personality who consciously undertook personal sacrifice by helping to save many persecuted Jews during the Nazi regime in Germany,” wrote Iten in a letter.

“Unfortunately the embassy cannot attend a ceremony [for] a street that is not located within the internationally recognised territory of Israel,” he added.

Hero

In a follow-up letter delivered a day before the ceremony, Lupolianski urged the ambassador to change his mind, calling Grüninger one of those few heroes who had helped the Jewish people during their darkest hour.

Grüninger has already been posthumously given the “The Righteous Among The Nations” award by Israel.

The honour, sponsored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, is given to non-Jews who saved Jewish lives during the Second World War.

It is estimated that Grüninger helped over 3,000 Jewish refugees. But as a result of his actions he was fired from his job, without pension or financial compensation, and spent the rest of his life in hardship.

He was posthumously rehabilitated in Switzerland in 1996.

Strained relations

Relations between the two countries were already strained after Switzerland condemned the killing of the Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, by Israeli security forces on Saturday.

Rantissi was killed in a targeted Israeli missile strike on his car. His death came just 26 days after the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was killed in an earlier attack by the Israeli military.

“We have condemned this act [Rantissi’s killing] based on a clear and defined legal standard which is international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions,” said Paul Fivaz, an ambassador in charge of the Middle East division of the Swiss foreign ministry.

Fivaz said that Bern did not disregard the right of Israel to defend its population against terrorist acts, which Switzerland condemns and which are prohibited by international humanitarian law.

“But this [international humanitarian law] has been elaborated for situations such as the one in Israel and prohibits executions and reprisals that are not within the law,” Fivaz told swissinfo.

“The basis of international humanitarian law is adapted to the reality and the security needs of Israel and it’s for this reason that we would like to see it applied,” added the ambassador.

Regret

Israel said that it was saddened by Switzerland’s stance.

“We sincerely regret the reaction of Switzerland and we would have hoped for more comprehension on the part of a country which has declared Hamas to be a terrorist organisation,” said Avi Pasner, an Israeli government spokesman.

Pasner told swissinfo that normal means were not sufficient when combating such an organisation.

“It’s to do with a war, the survival of a state against its enemies and you don’t conduct a war with legal means but with military means,” he said.

The Swiss media has strongly condemned the decision by the Swiss ambassador not to attend the street naming ceremony and has also called for more Swiss intervention in the Geneva Accord, a Swiss-backed plan for the Middle East.

But the accord suffered a blow last week after President Bush announced his support for the plan of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, for a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Tensions

These recent incidents are the latest in a series of tensions between the two countries.

Swiss banks finally agreed in 1998 to pay out $1.25 billion in settlements to Jewish organisations and Holocaust survivors to end the long-running holocaust assets affair.

The Swiss have been active supporters of the Geneva Accord, a Middle East peace plan, and have condemned the construction of Israel’s security barrier in the West Bank.

But despite these bones of contention, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said that relations between Israel and Switzerland were still good.

swissinfo

In brief

The Swiss ambassador to Israel has boycotted the ceremony to name a street in honour of Paul Grüninger.

Ambassador Iten refused the invitation on the grounds that the street is in northern Jerusalem, which is not recognised by the international community as part of Israel.

Switzerland has also condemned the killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi by Israeli security forces on Saturday.

Bern has already given its support to the Geneva Accord and condemned the Israeli security barrier in the West Bank.

A former row involved the return of money to holocaust survivors by Swiss banks.