These three Swiss organizations have connections with the controversial association ‘Samidoun’. SVP National Councilor Heer brings Eva Herzog into play as an explosive candidate for the SP ticket

Samidoun

The Palestinian network Samidoun was founded in the United States in 2012. The organization describes itself as a “solidarity network for Palestinian prisoners.” First, it calls for the release of people imprisoned for links to terrorism and in particular to the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Samidoun has long been monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany and classified as anti-Semitic and extremist. In October, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in the Bundestag: “A club like Samidoun, whose members celebrate the most brutal acts of terror on the streets, will be banned in Germany.”

On November 2, the club was officially banned in Germany. To date, there is no comparable ban in Switzerland. According to the Tagesanzeiger, the Federal Council has ordered a law, but before it comes into force it must be approved by parliament. This legislative process is time-consuming and can take years.

But how widespread are the ideas of this extremist organization in Switzerland?

Samidoun has these connections in Switzerland

Samidoun’s European coordinator, Mohammed Khatib, who lives in Belgium, is no longer unknown in Switzerland. Before the recent escalation in the Middle East and the start of the war in Israel and Gaza, he regularly traveled to Swiss cities and appeared as a speaker at various meetings. As recently as May this year, he spoke at two events in Zurich and Basel about the “history of the Palestinian left and the importance of internationalism.” The event in Basel was organized by the Swiss Palestine Network.

But Khatib not only appears at various events, but also maintains close relationships with various local networks. As research by the Tagesanzeiger shows, he is in regular contact with left-wing extremist groups such as ‘Revolutionary Construction’, ‘Red Help’ and ‘Revolutionary Youth’. But what exactly are these groups demanding?

“Revolutionary construction”

As the “Tagesanzeiger” further reports, a meeting took place last Friday at which the “Revolutionary Construction Basel” showed a film about the Palestinian hijacker Leila Khaled. The invitation to this meeting was published on social media. It said that after the film there would be “input and exchange on the Palestinian liberation struggle.” The message was appreciated by Khatib, member of Samidoun.

What is the ‘revolutionary construction’? The organizational structure of the ‘Revolutionary Construction’ is not known in detail. About fifty members of the ‘Revolutionary Construction Switzerland’ (RAS) were politically active in the 1970s and 1980s. There are also several offshoots such as the “Revolutionary Construction Zurich” (RAZ), “Revolutionary Construction Basel” and “Revolutionary Construction Winterthur”. They are anti-capitalist oriented Marxist-Leninist organizations in Switzerland.

The “Aufbau” not only discusses the Palestinian liberation struggle, but also writes on its website:

According to the Federal Council’s 2004 extremism report, the RAS maintains contacts with the Reithalle Bern cultural center, left-wing extremist groups in Lucerne and others in Ticino, Italy and Germany. It is unclear which contacts still exist today.

“Red aid”

“Red Help” sees itself as an international solidarity organization that supports politically persecuted people from the left-wing spectrum. There are branches of “Red Help” in several countries, including Switzerland. A 2006 Swiss Federal Police report suggests that the “International Red Aid” is intended to network left-wing extremist activities across Europe. However, it is unclear whether this assessment is still current.

Khatib spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally in Brussels in October 2022, a year before Hamas terrorists carried out a major attack in Israel. There he said: “Defeating Israel means defeating the US.”

The pro-Israeli portal “Audiatur-Online” reported at the time that Swiss supporters were also present at this meeting. The photos showed banners of the “Red Aid Geneva” and the “Revolutionary Youth Zurich”. The “Tagesanzeiger” also refers to this video when it writes that there is a connection between “Red Hilfe” and “Samidoun”.

The “Tagesanzeiger” ignores the fact that “Rote Hilfe Berlin” clearly distanced itself from the association “Samidoun” in a statement on October 11, 2023 and declared that its support for the “Samidoun” activist Zaid Abdulnasser had ended. “Red Help” continues to advocate left-wing solidarity with Palestine, but writes on its website:

“Revolutionary Youth Zurich”

There are several organizations in Switzerland and internationally that belong to the “Revolutionary Youth”. These consider themselves, among other things, anti-fascist and feminist. As previously mentioned, representatives of the “Revolutionary Youth Zurich” took part in a “Samidoun” meeting in October 2022.

The sympathy continues even after the Hamas attack in October 2023: the “Revolutionary Youth Zurich” expresses its solidarity with “Samidoun” on Instagram.

She writes under a post from October 29, 2023, the images of which were taken during a pro-Palestinian demonstration: “Around the world, resistance to Israeli occupation policies is growing, despite massive repression by imperialist states against organizations such as Samidoun and collectif. Palestine vaincra.” (jub)