The federal government kneels before the Swiss: more than 500 Swiss are waiting for rescue

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Tourists just want to leave Israel. Also many Swiss. But many airlines no longer fly to Tel Aviv. Or the flights have been fully booked for a long time.

The threads between the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs (EDA) and Switzerland are therefore running high. The federal government ordered the airline on Tuesday to operate a special flight to fly as many people as possible out of Israel. The German Lufthansa group, to which Swiss belongs, had actually decided not to operate special flights. However, Swiss managed to fly the aviation group from Switzerland on Tuesday evening with an Airbus A321 aircraft.

Thousands of Swiss in Israel

As Blick reported on Monday afternoon, the seats on the Swiss plane were immediately gone. More than 500 people are said to have registered with the EDA for a return flight. But the Swiss plane can only carry 219 passengers. Experience shows that when there is a crisis, holidaymakers are the first to want to leave the country immediately. Only then will Swiss people follow who have settled in another country for a longer period of time. It is said that 28,000 Swiss citizens live in Israel.

As long as Tel Aviv airport is still open, the federal government will continue to try to convince private airlines to allow Swiss – and especially Swiss – to fly. However, the federal government has no legal basis to force Swiss people to operate special flights. As Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis (62) said during a short media briefing, his department will try to make further repatriation flights possible.

Transport plane missing

His spokesman Michael Steiner confirmed: “We are in contact with Swiss to check whether they can operate further special flights.” Ultimately, the airline must first find suitable aircraft and crews to make the special flights possible.

The FDFA repeatedly finds itself overwhelmed by calls for help due to a crisis. The federal government often begs our neighboring states for support. Swiss has also had to intervene in other cases. Parliament has therefore debated several times whether Switzerland needs its own transport aircraft to take Swiss citizens out of these crisis areas. This time too, the discussion flares up again.

EDA must be able to help

But the FDFA is in a difficult situation for another reason: since a Bernese couple was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2011 and held for months, there has been a reconsideration in parliament. It decided that Swiss citizens are responsible for themselves if they get into trouble abroad. Since then, the question has been whether the FDFA can allow the Swiss to return.

SVP Council Member Franz Grüter (60) believes it is fundamentally right that Swiss citizens are responsible for their travel abroad. “But: if, as is currently the case in Israel, a completely unforeseeable emergency occurs in a normally safe country, the federal government must be able to make an exception in this extraordinary situation and help the Swiss on the ground,” the president said . of the Foreign Policy Committee (APK).

Grüter changed the program of the next MOT meeting because of the Hamas attack. Next Monday morning the committee will focus on Israel. “We must discuss such an exceptional solution,” he promises.

Source:Blick