The parliament in Switzerland passed a bill to ban Hamas on 11 December. The House of Representatives accepted the ban on Hamas ban on Wednesday by 168 votes, with just 6 members opposing. The Senate had already approved the motion on Tuesday, and now thew bill is set to become a law.
As per the bill introduced by the Federal Council, Hamas will be banned for an initial period of 5 years. As the bill has been passed by the parliament, now Federal Council will decide the date from when it will be implemented. At present, only Al-Qaeda and Islamic State are banned by law in Switzerland.
The House of Representative is also considering a ban on Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah. The bill was to be discussed on Wednesday, but was not taken up due to lack of time.
Both the government and the parliament in Switzerland had talked about banning Hamas after the 7 October terror attack in Israel. Now as per the bill passed by the both houses of the parliament, Hamas and its associated organisations have been banned for 5 years. Parliament has the option of extending the ban.
Hamas is already banned and labelled a terrorist organisations by several countries, including Israel, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan. European Union has imposed sanctions on Hamas and its financiers. While India called the 7 October a terror attack, the country has not banned Hamas yet.
