Drawing a line under Jewish bank account row

(From left) President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and the President of the Swiss Jewish Community Federation, Alfred Donath, in Bern Keystone

The Swiss government and the World Jewish Congress have restored friendly ties, ending tensions resulting from a dispute over Second World War era bank accounts.

The row over dormant accounts tarnished Switzerland’s image in the 1990s and eventually led to a settlement between Swiss banks and Jewish organisations.

Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and World Jewish Congress (WJC) head Ronald Lauder said a line had been drawn under the row during a meeting in the capital Bern on Wednesday.

“The friendly meeting between the Swiss president and Mr Lauder has definitively established ties of friendship and cooperation again between the WJC and the government,” said Alfred Donath, outgoing head of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SFJC), who was also present.

It was the first meeting between a leading figure in the WJC and a member of cabinet since the row unfolded over funds from dormant bank accounts.

The issue dates back to the 1990s when leading Swiss banks were accused of withholding money from people who opened bank accounts in Switzerland from 1939-45. The banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion (SFr1.3 billion) under terms of a settlement with organisations representing Holocaust victims in 1998.

A spokesman for Couchepin said there had been a “positive exchange” during the talks.

Ambassadorial role

But the congress continued to stand its ground over a natural gas deal between a private Swiss company and Iran. Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey attended the signing ceremony in Tehran in March.

Speaking on Tuesday, Lauder called on Switzerland to cancel the deal, saying the contract threatened both Israel and the United States.

“Maybe that money that Switzerland is paying to Iran will some day be used to either buy weapons to kill Israelis or buy weapons to kill Americans or buy missiles to be able to deliver nuclear weapons,” he said.

However, he explained that he was in the Swiss capital “more as an ambassador than somebody coming with a stick”.

Last month Lauder described the foreign policy of Calmy-Rey as “flawed”.

Calmy-Rey has defended the Swiss move, pointing out that the natural gas accord did not breach United Nations sanctions.

She criticised Tehran’s calls for the extinction of Israel. She said her visit allowed her to maintain a human rights dialogue and raise Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

She criticised the increasing use of the death penalty and corporal punishment in Iran.

swissinfo with agencies

Lawsuit settled

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) represented various Jewish organisations in negotiations with Swiss banks and the government to release funds from dormant Second World War era Jewish bank accounts in 1995.

WJC entered a class-action lawsuit that brought together other cases against Swiss banks by Holocaust survivors and their heirs who had been unable to access accounts because of requirements such as death certificates.

The subsequent hearings resulted in tensions between the US and Switzerland, with boycotts of Swiss companies and products.

WJC demanded $1.8 billion (SFr1.88 billion) to settle the lawsuit, and the parties agreed to a $1.25 billion deal in 1998. Swiss banks agreed to pay the money into a special fund which a US magistrate ordered be distributed in 2001.

Gas deal for Europe

The deal for the delivery of natural gas between private Swiss energy firm EGL and National Iranian Gas Export Company was signed in the Iranian capital in the presence of the Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey.

The natural gas from Iran together with supplies from Azerbaijan is expected to feed into a gas pipeline running from Greece via Albania to Italy.

The deal covers the delivery of 5.5 billion cubic metres of gas per year to Europe through a pipeline by 2012. The contract runs over 25 years, according to EGL, which has refused to reveal the worth of the contract.

Calmy-Rey said it was Switzerland’s strategy to diversify its source of energy supplies.