Fine issued over anti-Semitic discrimination at Swiss ski station

A restaurant manager in the Swiss ski resort of Davos has been fined for refusing to rent winter sports equipment to Jews, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The manager was sentenced to a fine and a suspended fine for "discrimination by refusing to provide services on the grounds of race, ethnicity or religion", the office of the southeastern Graubunden canton's public prosecutor told AFP.

In February, the 20minuten newspaper published a picture of a sign put up at the plush Pischa station above Davos, the resort known for hosting the annual World Economic Forum of the globe's business and political elites.

The sign, in Hebrew, said that due to various incidents, "including the theft of a sled, we no longer rent sports equipment to our Jewish brothers".

The policy applied to all winter sports equipment including sleds, airboards and snowshoes, it said, ending with "thank you for your understanding".

20minuten said the restaurant had told the paper in a written statement that they "no longer want the daily hassle" of Jewish guests leaving sledges on the slopes, or equipment not being returned or "returned defective".

Following a media storm in Switzerland, the restaurant manager apologised and reversed the decision.

The size of the fine was not announced, and as the man in question did not appeal, the case did not go to court.

"The penal order is final. We will not provide any further details on the sanction," the prosecutor's office said.

The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities filed the legal complaint.

"We are pleased that the public prosecutor's office acted quickly and consistently," its general secretary Jonathan Kreutner told AFP.

The Zurich-based Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism (GRA) told AFP the sentence was significant, "because Swiss courts apply the anti-racism penal provision very cautiously, making such rulings rare.

"While the law helps to sanction discriminatory incidents, it does not eliminate anti-Semitic stereotypes which are spread in the general population. Ultimately, anti-Semitism must be countered through civil courage and empathy within society."

The GRA had noted back in February that the Pischa incident was not the first time tensions had arisen in Davos between locals and tourists, "some of whom are Orthodox Jews".

The Davoser Zeitung newspaper reported in August last year that 3,000 to 4,000 Orthodox Jewish people took holidays in the resort in summer 2023, noting that there was "increasing criticism of the behaviour of these tourists".