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Swiss Police Investigating Davos Ski Shop and Restaurant Over Ban on Jews
A Hebrew sign at the Pischa Restaurant in the Sweiss resort of Davos informing Jewish guests that they are banned from renting ski equipment. Photo: Screenshot
A restaurant and ski equipment hire outlet in the exclusive Swiss mountain resort of Davos is in the spotlight after it posted a sign informing “our Jewish brothers” that they are no longer permitted to rent sledges, skis and other mountain sports gear as a consequence of “various very annoying incidents.”
A sign in Hebrew at the Pischa Restaurant in Davos stated that “due to various very annoying incidents, including the theft of a sledge, we no longer rent sports equipment to our Jewish brothers. This affects all sports equipment such as sledges, airboards, skis and snowshoes. Thank you for your understanding.”
The offending sign was photographed, translated and posted on Twitter/X by Jehuda Spielman, a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party who serves as a municipal councillor in Zurich.
A statement from the local police announced that they had already launched an investigation into the scandal. A police spokesperson told the SDA news agency that a formal complaint was not necessary for an investigation, as “suspicion of discrimination and a call to hatred” was sufficient for officers to begin their inquiries.
Jonathan Kreutner — the secretary-general of the Swiss Israelite Association (SIG) — told the Tages Anzeiger news outlet that the sign was “shocking and clearly discriminatory.”
Kreutner, who is himself currently on vacation in Davos, which attracts large numbers of Orthodox Jewish and Israeli tourists, added: “I understand why certain people no longer feel welcome in Davos.”
The Pischa Restaurant pushed back against the criticism, issuing a statement in Sunday complaining that Jewish guests allegedly did not respect its house rules.
“There are Jewish guests who wanted to rent sledges in street shoes, but would then leave them on the slopes and alert the emergency services even though they were not injured,” the statement claimed. It also complained that Jewish guests were bringing their own food onto the restaurant’s property, accusing them of “populating the best places on the terrace or in the restaurant with picnics.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli tourist on vacation in Davos told the Israeli news outlet Ynet that he had attempted to rent equipment from Pischa on Sunday and had been refused service.
“I pretended not to understand Hebrew and asked if we could rent the equipment. After the woman consulted with the manager, she rejected our request,” the 21-year-old man said.
Tension between businesses in Davos and Jewish guests has been rising in recent months. Last summer, the head of the local tourism office, Reto Branschi, said that littering, poor driving and trespassing on private grounds had caused the resentment of “locals, hosts and other guests.”
However, Branschi criticized the Pischa Restaurant’s announcement for focusing specifically on Jewish guests. “We distance ourselves from this notice,” he told the Tages Anzeiger on Sunday.
In 2017, a similar scandal erupted in the Swiss mountain resort of Arosa after a hotel owner posted signs instructing Jewish guests to shower before they used the swimming pool and to be sparing in their use of the hotel’s refrigerators to store kosher food.
The post Swiss Police Investigating Davos Ski Shop and Restaurant Over Ban on Jews first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.