Zurich Authorities Want 'No Taxpayer Money For Terrorists'

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Zurich cantonal parliament has voted against recognising the state of Palestine. However, it has provisionally supported a motion calling for“no taxpayers' money for terrorists”, with 77 votes in favour. This content was published on September 8, 2025 - 13:08 3 minutes Keystone-SDA

• Deutsch de Zürcher Kantonsrat will“keine Steuergelder für Terroristen” Original Read more: Zürcher Kantonsrat will“keine Steuergelder für Terroristen

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The individual initiative“No tax money for terrorists” was not explicitly directed against an organisation, it said on Monday. However, the canton and municipalities would have to scrutinise the recipients according to sanctions lists or bans by democratic states, for example.

Susanne Brunner from the right-wing Swiss People's Party spoke of a“self-evident fact”. Mario Senn from the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party also found the proposal sensible.“State payments should be as transparent as possible,” he said.

Nicola Siegrist from the left-wing Social Democratic Party read between the lines that the UN's Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was meant. The city of Zurich donated to UNRWA last year. A ban would contribute to the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, said Siegrist. A new law would not be expedient, said Andrea Gisler from the centrist Liberal Green Party, even though she criticised the City of Zurich's payment.

“Why don't you respect the democratic decision of the Zurich municipal council,” said Thomas Forrer from the left-wing Greens. Priska Hänni-Mathis from the Centre Party considered the request to be legitimate but did not see the initiative as a practical solution. The public debate worked, she said, and there was no need for an“additional control apparatus”.

+ Why Switzerland doesn't recognise Palestine as a state

Recognition of Palestine

The conflict in the Middle East was also the subject of a second motion. Two citizens called for Palestine to be recognised as a state with an individual initiative.

Social Democrat Mandy Abou Shoak referred to the situation in Gaza. Researchers said that what was happening there met the criteria of genocide.“The canton is not the right level, but the war concerns many people,” she said. She saw the recognition as a signal in favour of the two-state solution.

The People's Party, Centre Party, Liberal Greens and Radical-Liberals referred their rejection to the federal government, which is responsible for foreign policy. With 47 votes in favour, support was not forthcoming.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into 0045nglish. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at ...

Related Stories Popular Stories More Swiss Politics Blatten: what price for preserving Swiss mountain life? Read more: Blatten: what price for preserving Swiss mountain life

MENAFN08092025000210011054ID1110032685