Council of States votes in favor of banning Hamas
Published: Tuesday, Dec 12th 2023, 11:10
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The Council of States is in favour of banning the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas in Switzerland. On Tuesday, it adopted a corresponding motion from its Security Policy Committee (SIK-S) without opposition.
The committee passed the motion unanimously. It based its motion in particular on the massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7. With its inhumane attacks, Hamas had completely discredited itself as an interlocutor and could only be described as a brutal terrorist organization, she explained her motion. It was therefore important for Switzerland to take a clear stance.
Hamas was founded with the aim of destroying the state of Israel and its inhabitants, said Daniel Jositsch (SP/ZH). "If this is not a terrorist organization, then I don't know what a terrorist organization is."
The ban was supported by Mathias Zopfi (Greens/GL): "It is unacceptable for this organization to be portrayed as representing the Palestinian people."
There was no counter-motion. However, reservations against a ban on Hamas were expressed in the debate by Geneva SP member of the Council of States Carlo Sommaruga. At the same time, he unequivocally condemned the organization's terror.
If Switzerland banned organizations other than those banned by the UN, it would risk coming under international pressure, Sommaruga argued. This was the case, for example, with Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Long history
The Geneva Council of States also referred to the long history of the Middle East conflict - and the innocent victims on the Palestinian side. A ban on Hamas would also be a mistake in view of Switzerland's potential role as a mediator. Sommaruga is President of the Swiss-Palestinian Parliamentary Group.
An identical motion by the National Council's Security Policy Committee (SIK-N) is pending in the National Council. The upper chamber is expected to decide on it next week.
Although the small chamber's decision is politically significant, it makes little difference to the matter at hand. This is because the Federal Council already decided in November to instruct the Department of Justice to draw up a draft law to ban Hamas by the end of February. In doing so, it anticipated a mandate from parliament.
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