A SMALL PARAGRAPH from Arlene J. Mathes-Scharf's Kashrut.com web site is innocently headlined Swiss to vote on banning import of kosher and halal meat1 should be read for what it is: The Swiss want observant (and perhaps non-observant, too) Jews and Muslims out of Switzerland.
Kosher and even the less restrictive halal slaughter already is banned; now the Swiss want to prohibit importing kosher/halal to make life more difficult for Jews and Muslims.
According to Wikipedia2 History of the Jews in Switzerland reaches back at least a thousand years. Jews and Judaism have been present in the territory of what is now Switzerland since before the emergence of the medieval Old Swiss Confederacy in the 15th century.
Switzerland has Europe's tenth-largest Jewish community, with about 17,500 Jews, roughly 0.2% of the population. About one-third of the Jewish community lives in the Zürich metropolitan area. As of 2009, there were 38 synagogues in the country.
According to Kashrut.com’s source, Jewish News Online, the Swiss banned kosher and halal slaughtering as far back as 1894.
The Swiss have a mixed history with Jews.2
Switzerland gave refuge to approximately 23,000 Jews, but on the other hand the government decided to stay neutral and to be only a country of transit. Those refugees did not get treated that same way as the other refugees from other religions as to financial support, and the Swiss government even persuaded Germany to stamp "J" on the passport of Jews, making it easier to refuse Jewish refugees. When thousands of Jews tried to flee Austria after the Anschluss of March 1938, and again in 1942-1943 when Jews tried to escape deportation from France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, The Swiss borders were completely sealed to Jewish refugees. Till the Second World War was finished, 25,000 Jews were accepted in Switzerland as a refuge, and around 30,000 Jews were denied from entering the country. Most of the refugees has left the country around 1953.
(Ed.: The U.S. under Democrat FDR was far worse than the Swiss regarding Jewish refugees. It did, however, welcome nazi scientists, notably rocket builders, once Germany surrendered.)
A survey from 2014 has exposed that more than one in four Swiss residents are anti-Semitic, making Switzerland’s population one of the most anti-Jewish in Western Europe, according to an online report released this week by the Anti-Defamation League.
A World Jewish Congress lawsuit3 against Swiss banks was launched to retrieve deposits made into Swiss banks by victims of nazi persecution during and prior to World War II. Initiated in 1995 as WJC negotiations with both the Swiss government and its banks over burdensome proof-of-ownership requirements for accounts, strong support from United States politicians and leaked documents from a bank guard pressured a settlement in 1998 in a U.S. court for multiple classes of people affected by government and banking practices. As of 2015, $1.28 billion USD has been disbursed for 457,100 claimants.
(Ed: United States museums are refusing to return Nazi-confiscated artwork by stalling and often purposefully undergoing court hearings to allow the statute of limitations to run its course.4)
There is no European country that has not had, over the centuries, an ambiguous relationship with Jews and now with Israel.
The Jewish World Review5 notes that such a ban (on kosher slaughter) was an early step of Hitler's Third Reich, some fear the action is part of a growing assault on Jewish life linked to the spread of anti-Semitism sweeping across Europe.
The production of kosher meat, known as shechita, has long been illegal in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. And in Switzerland, attempts to lift a century-old ban caused an anti-Semitic backlash earlier this year.
Some fear the measures may gain ground in European governments because of growing anti-Jewish sentiment. Israel's deputy foreign minister, Rabbi Michael Melchior, said in a statement reacting to the Dutch initiative that "they simply don't want foreigners and they don't want Jews."
While the U.S., despite a State Department that is notoriously anti-Semitic and anti-Israel, kosher and halal slaughter still is legal. When a country abridges religious freedom, it’s time to relocate to a place where a person can freely — and fully — practice his or her religion.
Resources
1 Swiss to vote on banning import of kosher and halal meat
August 18, 2017: JewishNewsOnlline:
"Lawmakers in Switzerland will vote on a bill that outlaws the import of meat from animals that have undergone ritual slaughter, which already is illegal" in Switzerland.
"The bill, which was submitted in June by Matthias Aebischer, a federal lawmaker for the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland – the country’s second largest — has prompted opposition because foie gras is part of the ban. A delicacy made of goose liver that is particularly popular among French-speaking Swiss consumers, foie gras is produced through forced feeding that is widely considered cruel."
"The debate on the measure, which has divided the multinational Swiss state, has extended beyond a proposed ban in the same bill on importing any meat that is produced from animals that are not stunned prior to their slaughter"
"Shechitah, the Jewish ritual method of slaughtering animals, requires they be conscious when their throats are slit — a practice that critics say is cruel but which advocates insist is more humane than mechanised methods used in non-kosher abattoirs. Muslims slaughter animals in a similar method, albeit with fewer restrictions, to produce halal meat."
"Shechitah for all animals except poultry has been illegal in Switzerland following legislation in 1894." "The Swiss Federal Council, which is part of the federal government, in 2016 said banning the import of meat from ritual slaughter would violate international trade agreements that Switzerland had signed." http://www.kashrut.com/News/?alert=W606
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Switzerland
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Jewish_Congress_lawsuit_against_Swiss_banks
4 http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/09/us-museums-are-refusing-to-return-art-stolen-by-nazis/
5 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0702/euro_kosher.asp
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