Switzerland votes to ban Hamas for five years

The Swiss lower house voted overwhelmingly today (Wednesday) to ban Hamas and affiliated organizations for a period of five years, after the Swiss Senate already voted in favor of the law yesterday, according to SwissInfo.

The Swiss House of Representatives, the lower house of the Swiss Parliament, voted by an overwhelming margin of 168 to six, with some Greens abstaining, to ban Hamas and affiliated organizations for a period of five years.

The Swiss Federal Council can now decide the exact date of the ban, which can be extended by ordinary parliamentary procedure.

Currently, only al-Qaeda and ISIS are on the list of organizations banned by law in Switzerland.

A motion to similarly ban Hezbollah was not voted on due to lack of time.

Swiss diplomats have expressed concern over the ban, which appears to go beyond the country's traditional policy of neutrality in all matters beyond what the UN proscribes.

According to SwissInfo, Switzerland had a long standing back channel of communication to Hamas, where they tried to get the terrorist organization to adhere to international law. However, October 7th ended those efforts and subsequently led to the current ban.