Press conference on February 3, 2026 in Bern
Press file
- Press release (See below)
- Conference text (See below)
- Communication to the ICC Prosecutor’s Office (On this site – Denunciation Page)
- Initial Support (On this site – Denunciation Page)
- Between Switzerland and Israel: Close Cooperation (On this site – Complicity Page)
- What Switzerland must do (On this site – The law)
- National support campaign on Campax
1. Press release
Press Release
On February 3, 25 lawyers from across Switzerland denounced Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis to the ICC Prosecutor’s Office – International Criminal Court – for complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. This action is comparable to those carried out in 2025 in France and Italy.
It is notably supported by a former Secretary General of the FDFA, a former Deputy State Secretary of the FDFA, other diplomats, and the director of the film “Un juif pour l’exemple”.
From the Shoah to Gaza, history repeats itself for Switzerland
Switzerland collaborated with the Nazi regime, reminds Jacob Berger, the director of the film “Un Juif pour l’exemple”. It was not until 1995 that Federal Councillor Kaspar Villiger offered his apologies: “ We once made the wrong choice in the name of a national interest taken in its narrowest sense. The Federal Council deeply regrets this error and wishes to apologize for it, while remaining aware that such an aberration is, ultimately, inexcusable .”
And Jacob Berger wonders: “What has happened in recent years that, under the leadership of Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, Switzerland decided to abandon these principles in the face of the crimes of an allied government, in this case the Israeli government?”
Switzerland’s De Facto Collaboration
“Switzerland likes to present itself as a neutral, humanitarian country committed to international law. But the facts tell a different story. Switzerland is not an impartial observer. It is involved in close military and industrial cooperation with Israel in the field of armaments. ” The scene is set by Marcel Bosonnet, a lawyer specializing in Swiss and international criminal law.
He adds: “Between 2013 and 2025, representatives of the Federal Department of Defence visited Israel more than 1,200 times. In 2024 and 2025 alone, 25 trips were made by the «Operations Command», the unit responsible for all missions of the Swiss army. The purpose of these trips, the number and identity of participants, as well as their duration, are kept secret. This is far from transparency. And neutrality. ”
He also denounces the fact that “senior Swiss officials have taken management positions in Israeli arms companies, which directly profit from the war. State responsibility thus turns into private profit .”
Switzerland must respect and ensure respect for international law
The former head of Switzerland’s human rights foreign policy at the FDFA, Jean-Daniel Vigny, then speaks: “I joined Stop Complicity in reaction to Switzerland’s weak response to the terrible situation in Gaza regarding its obligations under international humanitarian law.”.
He explains: At the end of August 2025, 61 former diplomats proposed in an open letter to the Federal Council about ten concrete measures, which primarily aimed to ensure better respect for and enforcement of international humanitarian law by Israel in Gaza. This obligation also extended to the involved Swiss authorities and their personnel within the framework of this close cooperation at all levels with Tel Aviv, including in military matters, for which suspension was required. Alas, little or nothing has been done…
He observes: “There was therefore a deliberate will on the part of the Federal Council, under the ‘anesthesia’ of Ignazio Cassis, to go as easy as possible on the atrocities committed by Israel since 2023. A majority of the Federal Assembly also showed an almost total lack of empathy by adopting a position of significant weakness towards Israel regarding these mass atrocities and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
“We denounce Ignazio Cassis to the International Criminal Court”
Irène Wettstein, lawyer for the Stop Complicity association, outlines the context: “Switzerland, as depositary of the Geneva Conventions, must be a major actor in respecting and ensuring respect for this law. However, in the situation in Gaza, our country, our leaders have failed in this fundamental duty: nothing has been done to stop this murderous escalation. To remain silent when one should denounce, to do nothing when one should act, is to contribute to the worst. It is to be complicit. ”
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has still not opened an investigation following the criminal complaint filed in May 2025 against Mr. Ignazio Cassis, Ms. Karine Keller-Sutter, and Mr. Guy Parmelin on this matter.
9 months later, in view of this inaction, it is therefore the International Criminal Court that must be seized of the matter.
“We are 25 lawyers from across Switzerland. We are denouncing to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court facts that, in our opinion, establish the complicity of Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis in the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by the Israeli government and Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. ” she solemnly declares.
She adds: “Today, we are calling Ignazio Cassis into question. He might only be the first on the list. “
She concludes: “The Palestinian enclave has become the graveyard of international and humanitarian law. We cannot allow the impunity of those responsible—perpetrators and accomplices—to thrive. Otherwise, it’s chaos. The law of the strongest prevails. It is a fundamental duty for the victims, for all of humanity.”
Legal Arguments Establishing Ignazio Cassis’s Guilt
Andreas Noll, lawyer and member of the steering committee of humanrights.ch, examines the direct responsibility of the Federal Councillor:
“On May 24, 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that there was a real and immediate risk of Israel committing genocide. Since 2024, leading experts in genocide research, including Israeli academics such as Avi Shlaim, have agreed that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians. The independent commission of inquiry of the Human Rights Council also noted this fact on September 16, 2025.
According to the International Court of Justice, all States are obliged, under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to use their influence to prevent genocide, even if there is only a risk of genocide.
As head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Councillor was fully aware of these obligations.
He notes that: “In this context, IC would therefore have been obliged to: break all commercial relations with Israel (like the sanctions against Russia), continue to finance UNRWA to allow Palestinians to return to illegally occupied territories, completely prohibit the export of weapons and dual-use goods, and, in addition to refraining from all material support, use his diplomatic, moral, and economic influence to prevent the commission of the genocide in question.”
And he notes that, on the contrary, “economic cooperation with Israel remained good (2023: 1.675 billion euros in trade volume). No trace of sanctions.. Military cooperation remains very close, as Marcel Bosonnet reminded. Exports of dual-use goods (civilian and military) to Israel peaked in 2024 (16.7 million). The Swiss National Bank invests in the Israeli arms industry (Q2 2025: US$38.1 million).”
He then reminds us that : “Let’s not forget: Mr. Cassis was appointed to the Federal Council as Israel’s chief lobbyist (He was the vice-president of the Switzerland-Israel parliamentary friendship group).”
Support the action on stopcomplicity.ch
The conclusion comes from Michel Cornut, president of Stop Complicity: “We are launching on StopComplicity.cha campaign that allows everyone to support our action.” The first signatories are high-ranking diplomats, doctors, professors, and renowned artists from all over Switzerland.
It is also the campaign of all the ordinary people of this country – of whom I am one – who absolutely do not accept the shameful and dishonorable behavior of their leaders, and who today warn them: we will not let you go; you expose yourselves to consequences; your impunity is by no means guaranteed.”
Photos ©Tobias Ettlin
2. Text of the press conference
Introduction
Michel Cornut, President of Stop ComplicityIntroduction
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for attending this press conference.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas committed war crimes in Israel, which Switzerland rightly condemned.
Israel then decided to “erase Gaza.” Today, it is done. Two million people – the population of French-speaking Switzerland – are crammed into a territory smaller than the canton of Geneva or the canton of Schaffhausen. They live in tents, suffering from hunger, thirst, and cold. No child reaches the minimum level of dietary diversity. The bombings continue. Already, 71,000 people have been killed, including 20,000 children, sometimes shot by snipers. 171,000 people have been injured.
According to the competent United Nations bodies, these are war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. These bodies have therefore asked member states to impose sanctions against Israel, in accordance with international humanitarian and criminal law. Some have done so; in Europe: Belgium, Ireland, Spain. Not Switzerland.
Many diplomats and law professors have reminded our authorities of their duties, whether under the Geneva Conventions or the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, among others. In vain.
Today, with 25 lawyers, we are denouncing Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis to the International Criminal Court for complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide. Today, we are launching a campaign allowing Swiss women and men to declare – online – their support for this legal action.
From the Shoah to Gaza
Jacob Berger, filmmaker, director of “A Jew for an Example”
In 1995, Federal Councillor Kaspar Villiger declared:
“The ‘J’ stamp – a ‘J’ affixed by Switzerland to the passports of Jewish refugees – was a concession, a concession contrary to its objectives, that Switzerland made to Germany.”
Switzerland approved this stamp in 1938.
We once made the wrong choice in the name of a national interest understood in its narrowest sense.
“The Federal Council deeply regrets this error and wishes to apologize for it, while remaining aware that such an aberration is, ultimately, inexcusable.”
Shortly thereafter, Switzerland also had to acknowledge that it had turned back thousands of refugees, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to Germany or occupied France, particularly between 1942 and 1944 – sending many of them to an almost certain death.
A few years later, in 1998, major Swiss banks were forced to pay 1.25 billion dollars to international Jewish organizations to settle disputes related to the spoliation of assets belonging to Jewish victims of Nazism, before, during, and after World War II.
It was also at this time that Switzerland had to admit the extent of its economic ties with the Third Reich, including its central role in recycling Nazi gold: gold plundered from invaded countries, from deported Jewish families, and – in some cases – gold of criminal origin, directly linked to the victims of extermination camps.
Historical research has shown that these transactions continued until the end of the war, including after the reality of the extermination camps was widely known to Allied authorities – and, at least partially, to Swiss authorities.
For this too, Switzerland issued official apologies.
These pages are among the darkest in our country’s history.
In 2017, when I directed A Jew for an Example, which recounts the assassination of a Bernese cattle dealer of Jewish faith by a group of Swiss Nazis, the dominant national narrative still claimed that there had never been Nazis in Switzerland. The country claimed to be entirely preserved from the brown plague.
Thus, we moved from widespread antisemitism among Swiss elites during the interwar period – political, diplomatic, economic, and religious elites – to a nearly unanimous denial of this antisemitism after 1945.
It is true that, since World War II, Switzerland has sought to erase the shame of its compromises by pursuing a foreign policy largely based on humanitarian law, international law, and the Geneva Conventions – of which it is the depositary.
What has happened in recent years for Switzerland, under the leadership of Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, to decide to abandon these principles in the face of the crimes of an allied government, in this case the Israeli government?
How could Switzerland remain silent in the face of the massive destruction of a territory and its infrastructure?
How could it refrain from condemning the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, among whom a considerable number of women and children, over a period of more than two years?
How could it look away while journalists, humanitarian workers, and medical personnel were, on several occasions, targeted by documented strikes and shootings?
How could Swiss diplomacy acquiesce to the continued colonization of the West Bank, which is illegal under international law, or fail to react to openly racist, sometimes genocidal, statements made by Israeli political and military officials publicly calling for the expulsion or annihilation of the Palestinian population?
How could the Swiss army maintain close cooperation with an army accused of war crimes, even organizing exchanges and training, and participating in industrial projects – particularly in the field of drones – even as these technologies are used in operations denounced by numerous international organizations?
How could Swiss diplomacy relay official Israeli communications aimed at discrediting humanitarian NGOs, refuse to distinguish between occupier and occupied, colonizer and colonized, and justify mass crimes by presenting them as a legitimate response to the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023?
How could Switzerland participate in the public discrediting of our compatriot Philippe Lazzarini, director of UNRWA, accused without established proof of supporting Hamas?
How could Switzerland tolerate Swiss citizens being intercepted on the high seas during a humanitarian flotilla bound for Gaza?
And finally, how could it accept that the current “ceasefire” is violated almost daily, while bombings continue in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, causing new civilian casualties, before the eyes of the world?
In a few years, other Federal Councillors may come to ask for forgiveness for these “wrong choices,” made “in the name of a national interest understood in its narrowest sense.”
But today, we demand that these acts be examined in light of international criminal law, and that political and legal responsibilities be fully established.
Switzerland’s De Facto Collaboration
Marcel Bosonnet, lawyer in Zurich, specialist in Swiss and international criminal law and international judicial assistance in criminal matters
Switzerland likes to present itself as a neutral, humanitarian country committed to international law. But the facts tell a different story.
Switzerland is not an impartial observer.
It participates in close military and industrial cooperation with Israel in the field of armaments.
Swiss companies export military goods and so-called “dual-use” goods to Israel, i.e., goods that can be used on battlefields.
In 2024, Switzerland authorized such exports worth 16.7 million francs.
In 2025, this figure rose to over 25 million francs, a record over the past ten years.
While Gaza is being bombed, the figures for military goods are increasing.
The main actors in this cooperation are companies such as Ruag, Alpes Lasers, and Elbit Systems Switzerland, a subsidiary of Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems in Israel.
Swiss companies supply drone components and laser technologies, which are clearly used in military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Swiss technology, Israeli weapons, Palestinian victims.
But it doesn’t stop at exports.
Between 2013 and 2025, representatives of the Federal Department of Defence traveled to Israel more than 1,200 times.
In 2024 and 2025 alone, 25 trips were made by the “Operations Command,” the unit responsible for all missions of the Swiss army.
The purpose of these trips, the number and identity of participants, as well as their duration, are kept secret.
This is far from transparency. And neutrality.
Added to this is a systematic revolving door effect:
senior Swiss officials have taken management positions in Israeli arms companies, which directly profit from the war.
State responsibility thus transforms into private profit.
And the Swiss financial center is also involved.
The Swiss National Bank and UBS hold significant stakes in Elbit Systems.
A company whose order book exploded to over 20 billion US dollars after the destruction of the Gaza Strip.
War is profitable, including for Swiss institutions.
This cooperation should have been suspended.
It was not.
Switzerland thus violates its own obligations under international law.
In her report titled “A Collective Crime,” United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese reaches a clear conclusion:
19 states are involved in the genocide in Gaza, including Switzerland.
Neutrality ends at the latest when war crimes are committed or supported in its name.
Switzerland must respect and ensure respect for international law
Jean-Daniel Vigny, aformer head (Minister) at the FDFA for Switzerland’s foreign policy on human rights
1. I joined Stop Complicity in reaction to Switzerland’s weak response to the terrible situation in Gaza and the other OPTs (Occupied Palestinian Territories) regarding IHL (International Humanitarian Law) obligations, including humanitarian aid to UNRWA and humanitarian NGOs on the ground. Indeed, the Federal Council had quickly reacted in autumn 2023 by strongly condemning this heinous crime against humanity perpetrated by HAMAS. But it adopted a low profile in the face of this set of extremely serious, flagrant, massive, and therefore systematic violations of IHL that Israel has been committing for over two years against the letter and spirit of the 4th Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. There is no possible equivocation; these violations are well-documented and verified, based on numerous reliable information sources of various origins at the multilateral, regional, and bilateral levels, from the ICRC, media, witnesses, and NGOs of all stripes.
Did the FDFA even remember the existence of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide? Its violation was invoked in good faith by the Secretary-General of AI (Amnesty International) and the UN Human Rights Council Rapporteur on the OPTs during the panel discussion on the situation in Palestine, held at the end of June in Bern before a packed hall of several hundred young activists. Has the FDFA thoroughly examined the question of a possible crime against humanity within the meaning of Article 7 of the ICC (International Criminal Court), specifically an “attack directed against the civilian population” of Palestine aimed at its “deportation or forcible transfer of population,” possibly linked to its “extermination” or “persecution (cf. Art. 7/1, lit. d and h ICC; cf. also Art. 7/2 lit. a, b, d and g ICC)…And what about the numerous war crimes committed by the IDF (Art. 8 ICC)…?
There was therefore a deliberate will on the Federal Council’s part, under the ‘anesthesia’ of Ignazio Cassis, to go as easy as possible on the atrocities committed by Israel since 2023. A majority of the Federal Assembly also showed an almost total lack of empathy by adopting a position of signal weakness towards Israel regarding these mass atrocities and the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the other OPTs.
In summary, Swiss authorities respected and enforced international law in the case of the HAMAS terrorist attack, but not in the case of Israel’s outrageous military campaign! There has indeed been a double standard in this matter regarding the implementation of Geneva IHL!
2. At the end of August 2025, 61 former diplomats proposed in an open letter to the Federal Council the adoption of about ten concrete measures, primarily aimed at ensuring better respect for and enforcement of Geneva IHL by Israel in Gaza and the OPTs. This obligation also extended to the involved Swiss authorities and their personnel within the framework of this close cooperation at all levels with Tel Aviv, including in military matters, for which suspension was required. Alas, little or nothing has been done…
Given this blatant lack of empathy from federal authorities in the face of the immense suffering of Palestinian civilians, what can Swiss civil society do when even the “principles of the law of nations, the principles of humanity, and the dictates of public conscience” are no longer observed? The answer is our Stop Complicity denunciation, which its main authors are presenting to you in detail this morning.
3.. Let’s be realistic, there may be a 3rd way to distance oneself from the armed conflict in Gaza and the other OPTs by adopting an all-encompassing approach 1). As a depositary state, neutral Switzerland is therefore their guardian. In truth, there is no obligation under international law for our country to do more than any other State Party to the Conventions to “respect and ensure respect in all circumstances” for Geneva IHL. But could Bern not take a diplomatic initiative for a special political commitment from Switzerland aimed at better protecting civilians in times of war, and this in any potential armed conflict situation… From this perspective, can we imagine Switzerland attempting to adopt an abstract, all-encompassing, non-personalized approach to any situation of international or non-international armed conflict? Thus, we could aim for the general implementation of the 4th Convention, by committing ourselves to prevention, education, and training to respect and ensure respect for it, as well as its Additional Protocols I and II. Such a commitment would likely have a better chance of being accepted insofar as it would not examine a given armed conflict situation, but any potential situation of international or non-international armed conflict.
It must be admitted that Geneva IHL contains far too many articles, which are also often difficult to understand and implement practically on the ground. However, the ICRC’s IHL Treaties Database contains numerous practical Commentaries on the provisions of the 4th Convention and Additional Protocols I and II. This is a remarkable intellectual exercise that could be brought to an operational level. Would it thus be possible to identify, collect, list, and collate the most concrete of these commentaries on the essential provisions of the 4th, for the purpose of compiling them into an extended vade mecum, a toolkit made available to States and non-state actors referred to in AP 1 (Art. 1/4) and AP 2 (Art. 1/1)….
These are, for now, just initial thoughts on the matter, thank you.
We are denouncing Ignazio Cassis to the ICC.
Attorney Irène Wettstein, lawyer in Vevey, co-founder of the Lawyers for Climate association
International public law and humanitarian law are pillars of the global order. Switzerland, as the depositary of the Geneva Conventions, must be a major player in upholding and enforcing this law. Yet, in the situation in Gaza, our country and our leaders have failed in this fundamental duty: nothing has been done to stop this murderous escalation.
Remaining silent when one should denounce. Doing nothing when one should act. This is contributing to the worst. This is complicity.
In May 2025, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland received a criminal complaint filed against three current members of the Federal Council, namely Mr. Ignazio Cassis, Ms. Karine Keller-Sutter, and Mr. Guy Parmelin, and against former Federal Council member Ms. Viola Amherd, for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes, potentially genocide, offenses prosecuted ex officio, under Swiss and international law.
9 months later, the OAG has still not opened an investigation.
In light of this inaction, it is therefore the International Criminal Court that must be seized.
According to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, a government member can be convicted of complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
They cannot invoke their immunity on the grounds of the alleged “political nature” of the acts they committed.
Complicity covers aiding, abetting, or assisting, particularly by providing the means to commit the crimes.
It is not necessary for the accomplice to share the perpetrator’s genocidal intent.
However, this contribution must be made with full knowledge of the group’s intent to commit this crime.
Any individual or organization can communicate information on serious crimes to the Office of the Prosecutor and trigger a preliminary examination.
In France, on July 22, 2025, 114 lawyers denounced members of the French executive to the ICC, including President Emmanuel Macron.
In Italy, on October 14, 2025, 52 lawyers denounced members of the Italian executive to the ICC, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
This is what we are doing today in Switzerland.
We are 25 lawyers from all over Switzerland. We are reporting facts to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court which, in our opinion, establish the complicity of Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by the Israeli government and Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
We are 25 lawyers from all over Switzerland. We are denouncing to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court the facts that we believe constitute the complicity of Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by the Israeli government and Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
We are 25 lawyers from across Switzerland. We are denouncing to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court facts that, in our opinion, establish the complicity of Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis in the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by the Israeli government and Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian enclave has become the graveyard of international and humanitarian law.
The impunity of those responsible, perpetrators and accomplices, cannot be allowed to flourish.
Otherwise, it’s chaos. The law of the strongest prevails.
It is more than a necessary examination of conscience.
It is a fundamental duty for the victims, for all of humanity.
We act as lawyers, criminal law specialists, and citizens.
Personalities (diplomats in particular) are the first supporters of this action.
Civil society as a whole is invited to support this initiative.
Today, we are implicating Ignazio Cassis. He might only be the first on the list.
Indeed, the Office of the Prosecutor has full discretion to extend its examination to other members of our government, former members, officials, or entrepreneurs.
Legal arguments for Ignazio Cassis’s culpability
Andreas Noll, lawyer in Basel, FSA specialist in criminal law and member of the steering committee of humanrights.ch
We believe that IC aided and abetted war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by the State of Israel against the Palestinian civilian population in the occupied territories, particularly in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, within the meaning of Article 25, paragraph 3, letters c and d, of the Rome Statute, which entered into force on July 1, 2002, for Switzerland and on April 1, 2015, for Palestine. Why?
He is the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. He is the highest-ranking official in the department and thus influences foreign policy, particularly concerning Israel. He has full power to act. In the exercise of his duties, he is not entirely free, but bound by international treaties in which Switzerland has undertaken binding commitments, namely the Rome Statute and the Geneva Conventions, for which Switzerland has made specific commitments as a depositary state. By joining the UN on September 10, 2002, Switzerland also recognized the authority and binding legal force of the International Court of Justice and committed to implementing its decisions.
On May 24, 2024, the ICJ ruled that there was a real and immediate risk of Israel committing genocide. In its advisory opinion of July 19, 2024, requested by the United Nations General Assembly, it also declared that all States have an obligation not to recognize as legitimate the situation resulting from Israel’s illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory and not to provide any aid or assistance to maintain this situation. On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued two arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for various war crimes. On June 14, 2024, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory published a detailed report on atrocities committed by the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank, including flagrant violations of international humanitarian law such as the systematic weaponization of the total blockade of access to basic necessities like water and food, which clearly constitutes a war crime.
The report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, transmitted to the General Assembly on October 1, 2024, concluded that the genocide in Gaza was part of a deliberately orchestrated program of ethnic cleansing.
After leading experts in genocide research, including Israeli academics such as Avi Shlaim, agreed since mid-2024 that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians, the independent commission of inquiry of the Human Rights Council also confirmed this fact on September 16, 2025.
In addition to the binding obligations of the ICJ stemming from the advisory opinion of July 19, 2024, there is the obligation for all States, set forth in the ICJ’s decision in the Nicaragua v. Germany case of April 30, 2024, to use all reasonable means at their disposal to prevent, as far as possible, genocide.
Finally, in its judgment of February 26, 2007, in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia, the ICJ ruled that all States are obliged, under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to use their influence to prevent genocide, even if there is only a risk of genocide.
As head of the FDFA, Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis was fully aware of these obligations.
In addition, there are obligations arising from the War Material Act: Article 22a, paragraph 2, prohibits export to conflict zones (lit. a), zones where serious and systematic human rights violations are committed (lit. b), and zones where there is a high risk of use against the civilian population (lit. c).
The same applies under Article 6 of the UN Arms Trade Treaty of January 30, 2015: Knowing that these weapons could be used to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects as such, or other war crimes as defined in the international instruments to which they are parties.
In this context, Ignazio Cassis would therefore have been obliged to:
- To sever all trade relations with Israel (similar to sanctions against Russia; no aid or support (ICJ decision of April 30, 2024, in the Nicaragua v. Germany case; ICJ advisory opinion of July 19, 2024; no aid or support for the genocide of Palestinians by Israel))
- to continue funding UNRWA to enable Palestinians to return to illegally occupied territories (no recognition of illegal occupation as legitimate)
- to completely prohibit the export of weapons and dual-use goods (ICJ advisory opinion of July 19, 2024; no aid or support for the continuation of genocide)
Switzerland is also obliged, in addition to refraining from all material support, to use its diplomatic, moral, and economic influence to prevent the commission of the genocide in question.
What did Ignazio Cassis do?
Economic cooperation with Israel remains good (2023: 1.675 billion euros in trade volume). No sign of sanctions.
Still very close military cooperation, as Attorney Besonnet reminded us
Between October 2023 and April 2024, twenty export authorizations for dual-use goods to Israel were granted to seventeen Swiss companies. Twenty-one export authorizations for specifically military goods were granted to four Swiss companies.
Exports of dual-use goods (civilian and military) to Israel peaked in 2024 (16.7 million).
The Swiss National Bank invests in the Israeli arms industry (Q2 2025: US$ 38.1 million). The same applies to UBS (Q2 2025: US$ 75.7 million) which invests in Elbit Systems shares.
Switzerland, as a depositary state, refuses to convene a general assembly of the States Parties to the Geneva Convention (moral support).
Legal and diplomatic support for Swiss-Israeli dual nationals in illegal settlements in the occupied territories
Regarding the export of weapons and dual-use goods that should under no circumstances have been exported, SECO wrote (Beobachter of January 23, 2026): no information, but each authorization request is examined very carefully. Anyone who examines thoroughly has an intention, even if no weapons and no dual-use goods can be exported.
And let’s not forget: IC was appointed to the Federal Council as Israel’s chief lobbyist (Vice-President of the Switzerland-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group).
Public international law and international law must be respected, and Switzerland must do everything in its power to ensure this is also the case abroad.
The prerequisite for a peaceful world order is the binding nature and applicability of the rules of peaceful coexistence, in short, the rule of law. This is the meaning and purpose of international law and public international law. If violations of the law committed by persons exercising state functions are not sanctioned, the law loses its binding character. If the powerful of this world can do whatever they want, whether international law forbids it or not, then war, terror, and chaos prevail. Israel and the United States demonstrate this to us every day. But that is only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is the tolerance of the international community, which allows Israel and the United States to plunge the world into war, terror, and chaos without sanctioning them. It thus becomes complicit with Israel and the United States. The same applies to IC, who actively protects the criminal actions of these states. He thus makes Switzerland an ally of state terrorism.
You can imagine this as if, overnight, no more crimes were prosecuted in Switzerland, and they were therefore only punishable on paper. Laws would then become mere pieces of paper. Pillaging, theft, and murder would multiply unchecked. This would mean a return to the law of the strongest, the institutionalization of violence instead of law, chaos instead of order, power instead of right, and would ultimately lead to a war of all against all. This would be unimaginable. This unimaginability is precisely asserted as the sole determining principle between states by Israel and the United States. The State can and must demand respect for the law not only from its citizens, but conversely, citizens must also unconditionally defend the respect for the law by States and demand it relentlessly and with determination from their own State and all other States. For the State never exists for itself, but solely for the good and in the interest of its citizens. If a citizen breaks the law, they become a criminal. Conversely, if the State breaks the law, it becomes a criminal terrorist organization.
Support the action on stopcomplicity.ch
Michel Cornut, president of Stop Complicity
I thank our speakers.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are launching a campaign on StopComplicity.ch that allows everyone to support our action. The first signatories are high-ranking diplomats, doctors, professors, and renowned artists from all over Switzerland.
It is also the campaign of all the ordinary people of this country – of whom I am one – who absolutely do not accept the shameful and dishonorable behavior of their leaders, and who today warn them: we will not let you go; you expose yourselves to consequences; your impunity is by no means guaranteed.