The Swiss government announced on Wednesday that it intends to submit a draft law by the end of next February that would ban the activities of the Islamic Resistance Movement (agitation) and its supporters inside Switzerland, and France also called for European sanctions to be imposed on Hamas officials.
Swiss Minister of Justice and Police, Elisabeth Böhm-Schneider, explained that banning the activities of the Hamas movement would facilitate the expulsion of those she described as “dangerous people” and speed up criminal procedures against potential terrorists, as she put it.
Schneider added that the Swiss government realizes that banning a movement constitutes a major assault on fundamental rights and could affect the room for maneuver available to Switzerland in foreign policy. However, the government considers internal security interests and the need to combat “terrorist financing” above other considerations.
Monitoring financial flows
Schneider pointed out that banks and other financial intermediaries will be obligated to disclose and report potential activities in Switzerland for the Hamas movement and its affiliated organizations.
The Minister stressed that non-governmental organizations should not use any Swiss funding to support the work of Hamas.
For his part, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said that his country’s authorities were not aware of the existence of Swiss funds from which the Hamas movement and its activities benefited.
He considered that the Hamas operation on October 7 represented a turning point in history, and Hamas should be classified as “terrorist,” as he described it.
The relevant Swiss ministries must submit the draft law by the end of next February, and the procedure is supposed to continue for a year, according to the federal authorities.
Individual penalties
For her part, French Minister of State for European Affairs Laurence Beaune said today that France calls for the imposition of individual European sanctions targeting senior Hamas officials, which go beyond condemning the movement as a whole.
Bonn did not specify the number or identities of the people likely to be affected by these mainly financial sanctions, which may take the form of asset freezes, she explained.
The minister added that France wants people connected to Hamas or B. to submitLebanese HezbollahThe same type of sanctions that affect individuals in Iran because of their role in the war in Ukraine.
The European Union imposed sanctions on 7 Iranian entities on the grounds that they manufacture explosive drones that Russia uses to strike targets in Ukraine.
The French Minister of State hoped that the Paris proposal would be adopted during the next meeting of foreign ministers European Union Next December, which is supported by Berlin and Rome, according to sources.
It is noteworthy that the United States imposed sanctions on 10 leaders of the Hamas movement, and the European Union, Washington and other countries classified Hamas as a “terrorist organization.”
