Switzerland to protest Israel death penalty with ambassador

FDFA intervenes with Israeli ambassador over death penalty Keystone-SDA

The Swiss foreign ministry will hold talks with the Israeli ambassador to Switzerland next week to reaffirm Swiss opposition to the expansion of the death penalty in Israel.

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The head of the Peace and Human Rights Division, Tim Enderlin, has already contacted the Israeli ambassador in Bern, a foreign ministry spokesperson told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

According to the spokesperson, Enderlin will also personally explain Switzerland’s position to Ambassador Tibor Schlosser. A meeting is planned for next week.

The Sonntagsblick newspaper was the first to report on the planned talks. The newspaper wrote that the foreign ministry had summoned the Israeli ambassador.

Switzerland has made it a stated goal to abolish the death penalty worldwide.

+ Read how Switzerland is trying to kill the death penalty

Ambitious goal

In 2013, then Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter set the ambitious goal of achieving a world without the death penalty by 2025.

In 2020 Switzerland and Mexico spearheaded talks on a resolution at the UN General Assembly to advance a moratorium on capital punishment. And the Alpine state more recently spoke out against United States President Donald Trump’s executive order to strengthen capital punishment at federal and state level.

While the goal of abolishing the death penalty globally has not been reached, Switzerland has not changed its over-arching stance.

Switzerland is now calling on Israel to fully comply with its international obligations, including the prohibition of discrimination and the guarantees of the rule of law and due process.

“Switzerland rejects the death penalty everywhere and under all circumstances, as it is incompatible with the right to life and human dignity,” the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Israel changes law

The Israeli parliament narrowly approved the law expanding the death penalty on Monday. It stipulates that in cases of terrorist-motivated murder aimed at destroying the State of Israel, the death penalty or life imprisonment can be imposed.

In Israeli military courts in the Palestinian territories, the death penalty is mandatory in such cases and must be carried out by hanging by a prison guard within 90 days of conviction.

Critics consider the law racist because it effectively only affects Palestinians. The initiative, spearheaded by the party of far-right Israeli police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, is also supported by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A lawsuit filed by the Israeli Civil Rights Association is pending before the country’s Supreme Court.

Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954 and has retained it only in exceptional cases, such as against Nazi war criminals or for treason during wartime. The last execution to date was that of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962.

Adapted from Italian by AI/mga

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