Switzerland-Israel society

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Switzerland-Israel Society
(GSI)
founding December 15, 1957
Seat Zurich , Switzerland
main emphasis Relations between Switzerland and Israel
Action space National
people Corina Eichenberger-Walther (Central President)
Website www.schweiz-israel.ch

The Switzerland-Israel Society (GSI) is an association promoting friendship between Switzerland and Israel . It conducts lectures and panel discussions, organizes study trips as well as rallies and relief actions for the benefit of Israel. She has also acted as an intermediary in state visits. The Switzerland-Israel Society has eleven regional sections. The central secretariat of the organization is located in Zurich .

The company also maintains contact with the German-Israeli Society and other European societies.

history

In 1955, Norbert Weldler from the Swiss association Pro Zion and Benjamin Sagalowitz , head of the press office of the Swiss Confederation of Israelites (JUNA), wanted to found an association called the “Society Switzerland-Israel”. However, the foundation came about only after the Suez Crisis of 1956, driven by the chief judge and Zurich SP cantonal councilor Max Gurny . In 1957 the Association Suisse-Israel groupe local à Genève was set up in Geneva with Gerhart M. Riegner , "the head of the Geneva office of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), who also established contacts with well-known personalities for the Zurich group".

Yeschajahu Avidad was also involved in the preparatory work; the actual founding meeting of the society took place on December 15, 1957 in Zurich. While the historian Jean Rudolf von Salis saw the importance of society in the diplomatic circumstances of the Cold War , Erich Bickel , co-initiator of the Christian Jewish Working Group (CJA) founded in 1946, wanted to use society to contain growing anti-Semitism . Both emphasized the mutual interests of the small states of Switzerland and Israel. Other participants in the founding were the refugee pastor Paul Vogt and the president of the Swiss Zionist Association Jacob Zucker . The first president of the society was Hans H. Staub , director of the Physics Institute at the University of Zurich ; Alfred Picot and Max Gurny became vice presidents. The state security took “observation and surveillance measures” with a view to the activities of the company.

In the 1960s, new sections were created; Under Albert Mossdorf , an autonomous Zurich section was formed in 1967, headed by Zurich city councilor Hans Frick from 1979 to 1996. Due to the influence of the Switzerland-Israel Society, its then President Pierre Aubert obtained a cut in the subsidies requested by the Federal Council for UNESCO in 1975 after it criticized Israel. In 1977 a coordinating committee (KoKo) was established, to which, in addition to the society, "the Swiss Association of Israelites, Keren Hajessod (United Israel Action) and the Christian-Jewish Working Group belonged". With the end of the Cold War and the Nazi gold affair , society briefly entered a crisis. In 2006, the Eastern Switzerland section of the society was founded. In 2009, its Israeli sister organization, Gesellschaft Israel-Schweiz, was founded in Netanya .

Publications

  • Dialogue, understanding, friendship - 50 years of Switzerland-Israeli society. Chronos, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-0340-0884-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Scheurer: Switzerland - Palestine - Israel: Hypocritical? Unrealistic? In: The weekly newspaper . July 12, 2007.
  2. ↑ GSI national, central board  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.schweiz-israel.ch  
  3. ↑ 1500 people take to the streets in Bern for Israel. In: Tages-Anzeiger . January 17, 2009.
  4. ↑ Military honors for masons. In: 20 minutes online . October 11, 2010.
  5. ^ Military honors for Federal Councilor Maurer in Israel. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . October 11, 2010.
  6. ^ "Against right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism in Europe - ways to responsible action". Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Israel Office. November 21, 2008.
  7. ↑ Successful presidium trip of DIG and GSI: Israel, Switzerland and Germany: new alliances agreed. ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the German-Israeli Society. November 2008.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.digberlin.de
  8. ↑ Israel societies network on Juedische-Allgemeine.de, accessed on February 9, 2016.
  9. ↑ a b c d Zsolt Keller : Advertise for understanding. A short history of the Switzerland – Israel society. In: Dialogue, Understanding, Friendship - 50 Years of Switzerland-Israel Society. Chronos Verlag , Zurich 2007, pp. 15–39.
  10. ^ Marc Perrenoud: Israel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  11. ^ Website of the Israel-Switzerland Society