Referendum was promoted by the Swiss People’s Party.

Letter from ADL:

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times December 10, 2003

To the Editor:

Along with the pronounced xenophobia and ultra-nationalism in the Swiss People’s Party platform and pronouncements, Party leader Christoph Blocher has a record of making anti-Semitic statements. (“Switzerland Is Odd Piece in the Continent’s New Mosaic,” Dec. 10)

In 1999, a Zurich Court convicted Blocher of using anti-Semitic stereotypes in a speech two years earlier in which he stated, “Jews are interested only in money.” In 1997, referring to a planned referendum on a government-initiated “Swiss Foundation for Solidarity” to help needy people, including Holocaust survivors, Mr. Blocher declared “They could blackmail banks, you can blackmail governments, you can blackmail national banks, you can force them to give in. (But) I would like to see if they can blackmail an entire people at the ballot box. They have to get through the eye of this needle, and I will do my utmost that we do not yield.” Mr. Blocher’s implication was clear that the “they” were Jews.

Sincerely,

Abraham H. Foxman
National Director