"Never again," we vowed. Each year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, we recall the atrocities it would have been easier to leave behind us. Today, however, antisemitism is resurgent from Europe to Australia, as rampant and manifest as in the days many people thought had been consigned to history. It is another alarming sign of the fractures in today's world.
The terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023 in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza have exacerbated this dangerous trend. Unfortunately, our country has also not been spared, as shown by another case of assault in Zurich earlier this week. In 2024, the Foundation against Racism and Antisemitism recorded 221 antisemitic incidents – a 42.5 per cent increase on the previous year. These included a devastating knife attack, attempted arson and explicit physical and verbal assaults. Sadly, there was also an increase in violence in our public spaces last year.
Hate has no place in a constitutional state – neither today nor tomorrow
Intolerance is not just a threat to those directly affected. Like all forms of discrimination based on prejudice, antisemitism is an attack on our fundamental freedoms and our collective security. Hatred and oppression have no place in constitutional states – including in Switzerland, a country of contrasts that is characterised by diversity and thrives on compromise.
This conviction guides me in my role as chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which brings together 57 participating States and 11 partner countries. Consensus is the guiding principle of the OSCE. Although this currently poses a challenge due to differences between members, it is also an opportunity, as it makes dialogue a necessity.
As the first country to hold the OSCE chairpersonship for the third time, Switzerland will focus on the organisation's capacity to act and the defence of its fundamental principles, in particular cooperative security, respect for fundamental freedoms and national minorities, and the peaceful settlement of disputes. To raise awareness of the OSCE, four thematic conferences will be held in Switzerland this year, and in December 2026 my counterparts will join me in Lugano for the meeting of the Ministerial Council.
The first conference is entitled 'Combating anti-Semitism: addressing challenges of intolerance and discrimination', and will take place in St Gallen on 9 and 10 February 2026. It will reaffirm the commitments enshrined in the OSCE's Declaration on Enhancing Efforts to Combat Anti-Semitism, which was adopted under the Swiss chairpersonship in 2014.
Better understanding for a better course of action
At this conference, representatives from politics and international institutions will join experts and civil society stakeholders to share their experiences and thus provide a factual basis to guide government action.
Education, dialogue and sport promote prevention and are levers for reducing prejudice – especially among young people, who are more exposed to hate on the internet. Although stadiums and sporting events are places where aggression arises, they can also be forums for raising awareness and promoting inclusion.
I would like to thank the Canton of St Gallen for its support in organising this conference. Twenty years after the St Gallen Declaration on the Coexistence of Religions and Interfaith Dialogue, the Canton is reaffirming its commitment to the peaceful coexistence of different world views. I would also like to congratulate the Gamaraal Foundation, which was recently honoured with the Simon Wiesenthal Prize (from among 229 applications submitted from 32 countries). The Swiss foundation is committed to supporting Holocaust survivors and to preserving their testimonies.
We must follow up remembrance with action and reconciliation. "Never forget that this has happened," Primo Levi reminds us. "Remember these words. Engrave them in your hearts." Peace is neither an ideal nor an ideology, but a duty to fulfil each day.
Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis
