Group reports rise in anti-Semitic incidents in French-speaking Switzerland

A total of 1,789 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in 2024, said CICAD. This represents an increase of 89.5% compared with 2023. Keystone-SDA

Anti-Semitic incidents rose by almost 90% in French-speaking Switzerland last year, according to the Intercommunity Coordination Against Anti-Semitism and Defamation (known by its French name CICAD). The organisation says it is concerned about an unprecedented rise across the country.

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A total of 1,789 incidents were reported in 2024, said CICAD in a press release on Friday. This represents an increase of 89.5% compared with 2023.

The organisation recorded 42 physical attacks, including some in schools, which have become the “new hotbeds of hatred”. There has also been an explosion in online anti-Semitism, especially on social networks, it said.

A sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts has also been observed in the rest of Switzerland. The Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism and the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities recorded 221 incidents in German-speaking regions and in cantons Graubünden and Ticino in 2024.

Last year was marked by a serious knife attack against an Orthodox Jewish man in Zurich.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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