Switzerland 'regrets' envoy showing Netanyahu cartoon at Iran conference

I24 NEWS – Vienna Jewish Community slams prosecutor’s office for ignoring anti-Semitic incitement by activists

The Swiss government issued an apology on Friday after the use of a cartoon depicting two doves defecating on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s head, by the country’s ambassador to Iran at an event promoting Iranian business opportunities.

Ambassador Giulio Haas displayed the image during a speech to hundreds of Swiss and Iranian business people at a Zurich hotel on Thursday.

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) said the “questionable cartoon” was used without its knowledge. “The FDFA regrets the use of this cartoon and considers it tasteless,” it said in a statement.

“Ambassador Haas did not intend to insult anybody with the cartoon,” the FDFA said. “If that is the case, however, he regrets it and seeks the pardon of everyone who could have felt insulted.”

Haas’ speech came as Europeans are hurrying to resume business with Iran, whose markets and large oil and gas reserves will be much easier to access following a deal struck with world powers last month that provides for a progressive and conditional lifting of international sanctions, in exchange for guarantees that the Islamic republic will not develop a nuclear bomb.

Netanyahu opposes the pact, saying it will be ineffective and allow Israel’s enemy to expand its regional influence.

At Thursday’s event, Haas displayed the image of the cartoon on an enormous screen, under the title “Iran: now or never.”

The cartoon shows a pair of doves with US and Iranian flags on their chests defecating on Netanyahu’s head.

“What this picture shows is, I think now is really the opportunity to assess the market,” he said.

In his speech, Haas said Iran was the “pole of stability in a very, very unsafe region.” He urged Swiss businesses not to delay their endeavors in Iran, a potentially lucrative market with a population of 80 million.

Officials in Jerusalem reacted angrily to the incident, stating that, “Israel strongly condemns this ugly act, and rejects the Swiss ambassador’s statement that Iran is a pillar of stability in the Middle East,” the officials said.

“What happened there is proof that the nuclear deal between the powers and Iran has created an uncontrollable incentive for the flowing of billions of dollars to Iran without the latter having to change its policy of terror and aggression. Greed causes the loss of even the most basic common sense and self respect, in an attempt to cozy up to the Iranian regime.”

Switzerland and Israel clashed diplomatically before in the past.

In 2009, Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland in protest of a UN conference in Geneva attended by then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Israel has also complained to Switzerland in the past about its purchase of natural gas from Iran.

In 1998, Swiss banks reached a $1.25 billion deal with Holocaust survivors and their descendants over the fate of funds deposited in Swiss banks by Jews during World War Two.

Switzerland on Thursday lifted several already suspended economic sanctions against Iran, following last month’s historic deal between Tehran and world powers on the Iranian nuclear program.

It decided to lift the ban on precious metals transactions with Iranian state bodies, as well as the requirement to report all trade in Iranian petrochemical products.

It also lifted requirements to report the transport of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, as well as insurance policies taken out in connection with such transactions.

Anti-Semitic incitement

The Jewish Community of Vienna, meanwhile, accused the city prosecutor’s office of ignoring anti-Semitic incitement by pro-Palestinian activists, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

The complaints referred to a caricature published on Facebook last month by the organizers of the Vienna march on International Quds Day — an Iranian-initiated annual event held in cities across the world in solidarity with Palestinians and rejection of Zionism and Israel.

The caricature, posted with the caption “Every Muslim will get a bucket of water,” showed men in Middle Eastern dress pouring water into a hole, in which stands an Orthodox Jew holding an Israeli flag.

The caricature also contained quote attributed to the late spiritual leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini: “If every Muslim poured a glass of water on Israel, it would drown.”

The organizers of the march removed the caricature following complains of the Jewish Community of Vienna in Austrian media.

Several Austrian parties filed a criminal complaint for incitement, but the Vienna Prosecutor’s Office recently decided to close the case without charging anyone.

The cartoon “was not directed against a group of people and constitutes no [criminal] offense,” the prosecutors said, according to a statement published last week on the community’s website.

“This line of argumentation and approach by the prosecutor is unfortunately not an isolated case,” the community’s president, Oskar Deutsch, wrote in a statement titled “the Vienna Prosecutor’s Office is ignoring anti-Semitic incitement.” The Jewish Community called on justice authorities to order the prosecutor’s office to investigate anyway.

Earlier this week, the community’s website republished an op-ed titled “The incitement caricature must not remain unpunished” by DI Birol Kilic, chairman of the Vienna-based Turkish Culture Council.

The “clerical Fascist cartoon,” he wrote, “should raise alarm bells” in Vienna, where “Theodor Herzl and Adolf Hitler lived and realized, through their experiences in Vienna, their dreams outside of Vienna.”