Swiss FDFA Walks Back False Claims—But Damage Remains

Below is an update on Al-Shabaka’s engagement with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) following our statement released on March 11, 2024.

The FDFA’s Partial Retraction

After more than 16 months of engagement, we welcome the FDFA’s decision to correct its public communications and remove any implication that the Swiss government ended its contract with Al-Shabaka as part of its 2023 investigation. As a result of this process, the FDFA has quietly amended its statements, removing all references to Al-Shabaka from the list of organizations it had previously claimed were subject to contract termination.

While this correction is necessary, it does not undo the harm caused by the FDFA’s initial misinformation—both to our organization and to the broader Palestinian human rights sector. These allegations emerged in the context of an FDFA-led investigation into 11 Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations at the outset of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Amid unprecedented violence against Palestinians, we have spent over a year redirecting critical time, legal resources, and institutional energy to countering misinformation—time that should be squarely focused on urgent political realities on the ground.

Importantly, our primary goal throughout this process was to compel the FDFA to correct the record. In doing so, we underscore that this was never an effort to distance ourselves from the other two referenced Palestinian organizations that continue to bear the brunt of this political attack. On the contrary, we stand in full and unequivocal solidarity with them as they continue to carry out essential work in the face of abject horror.

What Remains Uncorrected

While the FDFA has amended some of its statements, false claims about Al-Shabaka remain in the public domain. In a press conference on November 22, 2023, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis falsely stated that three organizations had their contracts terminated—a recording that is still publicly available. Then, on December 1, 2023, Swiss news site RTS quoted FDFA Chief of Communications Nicolas Bideau wrongly claiming that agreements with three Palestinian NGOs, including Al-Shabaka, were terminated due to “apologies for violence.”

The FDFA’s minimal corrections—without a formal update or public acknowledgment of its errors—do little to undo this damage. False claims that the FDFA introduced continue to circulate, misrepresenting the facts and exposing our organization and staff to reputational and political risk. Without a full and transparent retraction, the harm caused by these allegations persists.

Swiss Government Documents Reveal Alarming Justifications

As part of the negotiation process, Al-Shabaka obtained files that expose the FDFA’s rationale for its 2023 investigation. This correspondence confirms that the FDFA considered terminating contracts and suspending funding for all 11 organizations based on two deeply political and repressive criteria:

1. The organizations had not explicitly condemned Hamas.
2. The organizations referenced acts of genocide and war crimes committed by Israel.

Legal analysis provided to FDFA staff included the following statement:

“The publication of incriminating remarks, more or less explicit, against Switzerland or its state partners, regarding support for genocide or any other war crime, can have damaging consequences for Switzerland and its foreign policy…We therefore believe that a violation of the Code of Conduct by the NGOs in question is plausible in light of the information provided to us, and that a termination of the contractual relationship would be possible.”

The correspondence further revealed that at least some of the organizations investigated were targeted based on prior briefings the Swiss government received from a non-independent source. Alarmingly, the Israeli organization NGO Monitor—a group dedicated to suppressing pro-Palestine advocacy—publicly claimed credit for instigating this repressive scrutiny.

This revelation underscores the extent to which anti-Palestinian, agenda-driven actors influence state policy to stifle Palestinian rights organizations. It confirms that Switzerland was willing to penalize organizations simply for engaging in legitimate political analysis that named Israel’s genocide.

The implications of this extend beyond Palestine, raising urgent concerns for any recipient of Swiss funding whose work challenges Switzerland’s foreign policy or the actions of its allies. Indeed, if financial support is conditioned on silence or alignment with a donor state’s foreign policy, that support can only be seen as an instrument of coercion.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to challenging repression in all its forms, resisting political intimidation, and ensuring that spaces for independent, uncompromising Palestinian analysis not only survive but expand. While this specific engagement with the FDFA has concluded, our broader struggle for justice and Palestinian liberation continues.

We would like to express our gratitude to the team at the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) for their continued advocacy and support throughout this process. We also extend our deepest thanks to our legal team, whose tireless work and expertise have been invaluable in challenging the FDFA’s actions and securing this partial retraction.