A mountain restaurant in the Swiss ski resort of Davos is said to have posted a notice announcing that it would no longer lend skis or sleds to Jews. The cantonal police initiated an investigation.
Swiss police have begun an investigation into possible discrimination against Jews by a mountain restaurant in Davos. A private person alerted the authorities to a notice on the restaurant on Sunday, said Graubünden police spokesman Roman Rüegg. The note was examined and it is now being determined whether the offense of discrimination or incitement to hatred was met.
Jehuda Spielman, a local councilor from Zurich, published a photo on Platform
The sign says the store will no longer rent equipment such as sleds and skis to “our Jewish brothers.” It referred to a series of “very annoying incidents,” including the alleged “theft of a sleigh.” The message was written in Hebrew. It appeared to be aimed at Israeli Jews.
After Spielman’s post, numerous Swiss media reported on the sign.
“It has nothing to do with faith or skin color”
The Pischa mountain restaurant justified itself in a written statement. According to a report in the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”, problems with Jewish customers are absolutely not an isolated case, but rather everyday experiences. There are Jewish guests who wanted to rent sledges in street shoes, but then left them on the slopes and alerted the emergency services, even though they were not injured.
The operators explained that they no longer wanted to bear the risk that one of these guests would be involved in a serious accident at some point and would hold them accountable for it. “We don’t want the daily hassle anymore and have decided to exercise our right to decide who can rent our property and who can’t.” This has nothing to do with faith, skin color or personal inclinations.
Jewish organization wants to file criminal charges
The Davos tourism authority has not yet wanted to comment on the matter. But she announced a reaction. The Swiss Association of Israelite Communities (SIG) was horrified. According to a report in the “Thuner Tagblatt,” Secretary General Jonathan Kreutner finds the notice “shocking and clearly discriminatory.” Here, an entire group is inferred from the behavior of individuals. Now the SIG wants to file a criminal complaint for violating the criminal law against racism. “Such generalizations go too far,” says Kreutner.
Anti-Semitism is currently on the rise in Europe, largely in connection with the fighting in Gaza. The war began when the militant Islamist Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th. SIG General Secretary Kreutner complained that some people in Davos did not like to see Jewish guests. The head of the local tourism authority, Reto Branschi, was quoted in a local newspaper last year as saying that Jewish guests had problems following rules.