Swiss parliament votes against recognizing Palestinian state
(JNS) — The lower house of the Swiss parliament voted on Tuesday against recognizing Palestinian statehood, following the example of the upper house last year.
In the vote at the National Council of Switzerland, 116 lawmakers out of 200 voted against recognition and 66 voted in favor, according to a bulletin by the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, the country’s bicameral parliament. Another 11 lawmakers abstained and the vote of the remaining seven lawmakers was not recorded.
The vote was on a text submitted by the Geneva Canton and, in addition to proposing Swiss recognition for Palestinian statehood, it would have affirmed that Switzerland make “every possible effort to establish a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine, drawing in particular on the Geneva Initiative.”
The Geneva Initiative was a plan promoted by left-wing and far-left Israelis and PLO officials in the 2000s that proposed that the Palestinian Authority take over the Old City of Jerusalem, except for the Jewish Quarter, among other concessions, en route to the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Jonathan Kreutner, the General Secretary of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, or SIG, told JNS: “We have always said that we support the two-state solution, but that it should be achieved through negotiations and a peaceful resolution, not through unilateral declarations.”
On Sep. 9, 2025, the Council of States, the Swiss senate, rejected an initiative for Switzerland to recognize the “State of Palestine,” with 27 voting against and 17 in favor.
Five European activists on trial in Germany over anti-Israel vandalism
(JNS) — Five Europeans appeared in a German court on Monday on charges of causing over $1 million in damage at the German office of an Israeli defense company.
The five suspects, who range in age from 25 to 40 and include an Irish, a Brit, a Spaniard and a German, damaged office equipment and windows during the September attack on the office of the Israeli defense firm Elbit in the southern German city of Ulm.
The five defendants are members of the anti-Israel organization Palestine Action Germany, which subsequently published videos claiming responsibility for the attack, according to the charge sheet.
A similar attack was carried out by members of the group against Elbit offices in the United Kingdom in August 2024.
Police denied Jewish community’s request for more security before Sydney massacre, commission finds
(JTA) — Days before a massacre on a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, Sydney, the region’s Jewish security organization asked the police to send officers to Hanukkah events in the city.
In the message, the Community Security Group emphasized that Jews in Sydney were facing unusual danger. The threat level, it wrote, was “HIGH. A terrorist attack against the NSW Jewish Community is likely and there is a high level of antisemitic vilification.”
The police responded by saying that they could not devote additional officers to the events but would send patrols by. Three days later, 15 people, including rabbis and a child, were killed when two men opened fire on the event, known as Chanukah by the Sea.
The sequence of events appears in the first report issued by Australia’s Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, formed in the wake of the massacre amid pressure on the government to do more to keep Australian Jews safe.
The report, issued Thursday, contains 14 recommendations, some of which were obscured from public view for security reasons. They include elevating and strengthening counter-terrorism policing.
The Australian Jewish Association welcomed the report’s release but said it was marred by failing to address the form of antisemitic extremism said to have motivated the Bondi Beach shooters.
European Parliament renews calls for PA funding freeze over textbook incitement
(JNS) — For the seventh consecutive year, the European Parliament on Wednesday passed resolutions calling for future Palestinian Authority funding to be conditioned on the removal of antisemitic incitement in their textbooks, according to an educational watchdog group.
The latest resolutions note that P.A. textbooks continue to include “antisemitic content, incitement to violence and the glorification of martyrdom and jihad,” and that Palestinian pledges to reform the curriculum as part of a 2024 agreement with the E.U. have not taken place, the U.K-based IMPACT-se research organization said.
Over the years, the E.U.’s executive body, the European Commission, has never imposed a funding freeze despite the repeated resolutions passed by the European Parliament in Brussels.
“Year after year, the European Parliament has sent a consistent message to the Commission — that there is no excuse for a curriculum that indoctrinates the next generation with hatred and a jihadist death wish,” IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff told JNS. “But now more than ever, the Commission must take action. Failure to act and impose real financial and diplomatic consequences is a recipe for a Palestinian future of extremism and violence.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t see any concrete actions from the European Commission as they naively see the P.A. as their reliable partners and are reluctant to put too much pressure on them,” said Dutch MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen.
2 Jewish men stabbed in London, in attack British PM Keir Starmer calls ‘utterly appalling’
(JTA) — Two Jewish men were stabbed on the street in a heavily Orthodox neighborhood of London on Wednesday, escalating anxieties amid ongoing incidents targeting local Jews that police say reflect Iranian involvement.
A man was arrested at the scene in Golders Green after being apprehended first by members of the Shomrim, a Jewish security force that operates in parts of London. Hatzola, the Jewish-operated nonprofit emergency service whose ambulances were recently burned in an arson, treated the two victims.
“One male was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public. Shomrim responded immediately and detained the suspect. Police attended and deployed a taser,” Shomrim said in a post to social media.
Both men who were stabbed — one in his 70s and the other in his 30s — are hospitalized in stable condition, according to the Metropolitan Police.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the attack, calling it antisemitic and praising the nonprofit services that responded.
“The antisemitic attack in Golders Green is utterly appalling. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain,” he said on social media.
