Swiss parliament supports proposal to ban Hamas
The House of Representatives has followed the Senate in supporting a government proposal to classify Hamas as a terrorist group.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives tacitly adopted a committee motion calling for the Islamist organisation to be declared a terrorist group. Switzerland must adopt a clear position following the inhumane attacks and war crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, said parliamentarian Fabien Fivaz on behalf of the committee. He wanted Hamas to be banned in Switzerland. That way, its financial flows can be cut off.
+ How easy is it for Switzerland to declare Hamas a terrorist organisation?
Three weeks ago, the government decided that Switzerland should introduce a law to ban Hamas. A draft is due to be presented to parliament by the end of February 2024. On October 11, the government decided to classify the movement as a terrorist organisation. The Senate adopted its own identical motion last week. The two chambers still have to decide on the text of the law.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.