A practice that was thought to date from the darkest hours of the 20th century.
Swiss police announced this Monday, February 12, the opening of an investigation into suspicion of “discrimination and incitement to hatred” after a high-altitude hotel-restaurant in Davos refused to rent winter sports equipment. to Jewish tourists.
The high-altitude hotel-restaurant Pischa, located in one of Davos' ski areas, has decided to no longer rent its sleds, skis and snowshoes to Jewish customers, the newspaper 20minuten revealed on Monday, publishing a photo of the sign displayed by the establishment and written in Hebrew.
The sign has since been removed following the outcry.
The manager speaks of clumsy wording
This is not the first time that this type of incident has occurred in this region of Switzerland, very popular - in summer as in winter - with ultra-Orthodox Jewish tourists.
The managers of the establishment explained to 20minuten that ultra-Orthodox Jewish customers often left the equipment on the slopes, forcing them to “collect them, when we manage to find them”.
In a video published by the daily Blick, the manager apologizes and speaks of clumsy wording.
“I am ready to speak to the people concerned,” says the manager, Ruedi Pfiffner, who denies any anti-Semitism.
“The Graubünden cantonal police have opened an investigation into suspicions of discrimination and incitement to hatred,” police spokesperson Roman Rüegg confirmed to RTS.
Complaints filed by Jewish and anti-racist associations
The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (FSCI) will file a complaint.
“The poster is unquestionably discriminatory,” said FSCI general secretary Jonathan Kreutner: “An entire group of customers is being collectively labeled based on their appearance and origin.”
The Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism (GRA), based in Zurich, speaks of “serious anti-Semitic discrimination”.
She advocates a “fair solution” to avoid any future incidents linked to equipment rental, such as depositing a deposit or an identity document.
According to Jonathan Kreutner, while the increase in the number of Jewish guests in Davos in recent years shows that some hotels and businesses offer a warm welcome, others seem "to have a completely different attitude."
“The recurring problems in Davos are proof of this.
Just last summer, the local tourism organization froze its cooperation with us and our dialogue project.
It’s obvious there are a lot of things wrong here,” he said.
In 2017, another hotel located in the resort of Arosa, not far from Davos, and which also welcomes many ultra-Orthodox tourists, put up a poster asking its Jewish guests to shower before entering the swimming pool, triggering a lively controversy in Israel.