#Switzerland Neutrality

[newspatron]

India's Strategic Neutrality: Is It the Next Switzerland?

What do you think about India's evolving foreign policy? Share your thoughts and comments below!

India: Playing Switzerland in a World Gone Wild? 🤔 Ever wonder how Switzerland stays so chill while the world around it seems to be constantly losing its cool? 🧘 Turns out, there’s a method to their “neutrality” madness. And guess what? India seems to be taking notes! 📝 In this post, we’re going to explore how India is quietly mastering the art of strategic neutrality, juggling friendships with…

[butt-wizard]

Charlie and Lola but replace them with Basch and Lili

[fartshitter9000]

who ordered two sillies

[snoozerin]

switz fandom let me in

[cryystallos]

Neutral siblings thing i drew to get me out of artblock

[sealystanley]

Mini comic I suppose!!

[switzerlandaph]

[eretzyisrael]

by Gerald M. Steinberg

On 19 January 2025, following the conclusion of Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hamas, three Israeli women were released after 471 days of captivity in Gaza. The hostages were transferred to Red Cross vehicles, where they were harassed and taunted by armed “militants” and a menacing crowd that pressed itself against the windows and chanted “Allahu Akbar!” Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) did nothing to interfere with this intimidating display of indignity and public humiliation. Instead, uniformed ICRC officials complied when Hamas fighters handed them “certificates of completion to sign.” The three young women were then forced to hold these documents while their pictures were taken, as if they had come to Gaza for university courses.

This grotesque spectacle highlighted the degree to which the ICRC has been willing to serve as a prop for Hamas, before and after the Palestinian jihadists perpetrated the atrocities of 7 October 2023. More than 250 captives were seized from Israel on that terrible day. Most of them were alive, some were already dead, and a still-unknown number have since died in captivity or been murdered by their abductors. Not one of the Israeli abductees received a visit from the organisation ostensibly responsible for implementing the requirements of the Geneva Convention. The Red Cross did not provide a shred of information to the tormented families regarding the condition of the captives because, as its own official statements blandly insist, without the agreement of the Hamas, “the ICRC cannot act.”

Justifications like these are technically correct, but they sidestep the main issues raised by the ICRC’s critics. The anger expressed by Israelis and others is not caused by the ICRC’s failure to somehow force Hamas to allow visits and provide medications. The problem is that the organisation was largely passive and failed to use its vast prestige to demand access to the hostages or campaign for their release. The Red Cross officials who travelled throughout the region, including Qatar, did not hold press conferences where this message would have been amplified. Nor did they publish public letters addressed to, say, the heads of the Qatari government demanding assistance in pressing Hamas to follow basic humanitarian and legal principles on the treatment of its “prisoners.”

When they appeared on major media platforms, the ICRC’s officials did not bang on the tables or make any demands of Hamas at all. As Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy in Washington, DC has pointed out, “Many members of the International Committee of the Red Cross—who visited Gaza, held press conferences and left without bringing holy hell down on Hamas, kicking and screaming and demanding that they see the hostages—have blood on their hands.” Instead, the ICRC officials meekly and repeatedly offered the excuse that kicking, screaming, and banging on tables was simply not possible.

Similarly, on social-media platforms, the references to the hostages were few and far between. In 2024, the ICRC in Israel & OT account on X sent only seven tweets that mentioned the Israelis out of hundreds of posts. The main @ICRC account, which has a massive following of 2.2 million, is able to point to a few more examples, but most of these repeated the organisation’s excuse that its hands were tied by the ostensible limitations of its role as “a neutral intermediary.”

This narrowly legalistic policy recalls the ICRC’s shameful inaction during the Nazi Holocaust, when its officials ignored internal and external evidence of the German death camps and the genocidal “Final Solution.” The Red Cross leaders deliberated and decided to avoid public condemnations that would create friction between the Nazi authorities and Swiss officials.

That policy was not merely passive—the ICRC was also a willing participant in Nazi propaganda exercises. Specifically, the organisation presented the Theresienstadt ghetto as a “model” for the ICRC, which led it to circulate a fake report stipulating that Jews were not being transferred to the gas chambers. It took sixty years, immense pressure, and the emergence of documents revealing the organisation’s moral duplicity before the Red Cross acknowledged that Auschwitz “represents the greatest failure in the history of the ICRC, aggravated by its lack of decisiveness in taking steps to aid the victims of Nazi persecution. This failure will remain part of the ICRC’s memory.” Their statement concluded:

For the ICRC the most appropriate way to honour the victims and survivors … is to fight for a world in which the human dignity of every man, woman and child is respected without any reservations. It may never be possible to fully achieve this aim but the memory of Auschwitz obliges us to do everything in our power to work towards it.

These noble words notwithstanding, the Red Cross response to the hostages and the Gaza war closely parallels the organisation’s inaction and excuses during the Shoah. Like the victims languishing in the Nazis’ concentration camps, the Israeli hostages languishing in Gaza became non-persons—neither seen nor heard in the ICRC’s actions and public campaigns.Bias and BetrayalThe extensive rot at the heart of Human Rights Watch.QuilletteGerald M. Steinberg

The ICRC’s own double standards are particularly galling. Regarding Israelis, the policy of neutrality is a one-way street. The ICRC has repeatedly and vocally joined the intense political campaigns led by UN agencies and allied NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), which portray Israel’s counterterrorism in Gaza as egregious violations of international law. The organisation’s “Israel and Gaza” posts on Instagram include dozens of condemnations of “the limitless destruction of Gaza” and of the IDF’s “evacuation orders” to safe havens outside the areas of combat, which the ICRC insists “are not compatible” with international humanitarian law (IHL). But IHL, including the numerous “Geneva conventions,” is a flexible and endlessly contested concept that often reflects political and ideological preferences. In some interpretations, the Israeli policies in Gaza are entirely consistent with and perhaps above and beyond the requirements of the law of armed conflict. But these interpretations were entirely absent in the ICRC’s declarations, media interviews, and posts.

During the Gaza conflict, the ICRC repeatedly condemned Israeli military actions involving hospitals and clinics in Gaza, but said nothing about the extensive exploitation of these facilities by Hamas. For years, ICRC personnel on the ground in Gaza have included permanent staff, while top officials have made frequent visits. Like their UN and NGO counterparts and everyone else in Gaza, they were all aware of the vast tunnel network built by Hamas below schools, hospitals, clinics, mosques, residences, and parks. These tunnels were essential to Hamas’s terror strategy, including for the production and storage of thousands of rockets used to strike Israeli population centres. Each of these attacks on Israel was a war crime, but the Red Cross reported nothing, unlike the journalists and doctors who observed and documented the presence of Hamas weapons and fighters and the systematic exploitation of hospitals and other medical facilities for war and terrorism.

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Title

Weeping Eye

Aerial of a bright blue iceberg lake that deflating with a meandering outflow into the Arctic Ocean in Western Greenland. The top view combines the motif with a weeping eye over the discourse about melting icebergs due to climate change.

Manfred Zobrist

Switzerland

Neutral Density Photography Awards 2023

[bblgumgum]

doodle of my favorite siblings ever :3

[angeliswiss]

Them. I need medical help because ive been thinking about them and giggling in class not even joking.

[doueverwonder]

I love Liech and Switz and their sibling relationship is v cute but I need the mountain thing to be brought up, like it's gotta be dumb too.

Switzerland, being overdramatic: and I took you into my home without asking anything in return and you-

Liechtenstein: you made me give you a mountain??

Switzerland: that was one time.

Liechtenstein: Unlike the three times you've invaded me?

Switzerland: those weRE ACCIDENTS

Liechtenstein, muttering: Austria never made me give him a mountain

[fartshitter9000]

liechtenstein and some guy

[snoozerin]

reposting cuz i forgot one crutial doodle #sorry i dont wanna make a separate post

1st imge switzerland cat design by @\fartshitter9000 CUZ I LIKE IT A LOT

old animatic wip under break

[milkemim]

Day 3: Christmas Tree

Word count: 671

Link to all chapters

---------------------

It was the 3rd of December. Switzerland and Liechtenstein were on a walk to find the perfect Christmas tree to cut down. The weather was clear and it was sunny out. The freezing cold nips at the siblings’ cheeks and nose as they walk hand in hand through the forest.

“It’s beautiful today.” Liechtenstein says. “”Right, big brother?”

“Yes, it is. But we need to focus on finding a good tree for christmas. It needs to be small enough to fit inside.” Switzerland replies, making sure Liechtenstein kept up with his pace.

The two ran into a familiar face while trudging through the woods. [Name]! They look over at them and wave.

“Hey! You guys looking for a tree? Me too.” They say and walk over.

“Mx. [Name], good day,” Liechtenstein smiles at them and bows a little. “Yes, we’re looking for a Christmas tree. Do you want to join us and look together?”

“Liechtenstein, no! They’re gonna steal the good one.” He shoots her a look.

“Oh, it’s fine! I’m looking for just a tiny little one anyway.” They smile. “A baby tree.”

“Oh… Well, I guess you can stay then. As long as you help us cut it down.” Switzerland compromises.

“I can do that!”

So the three walked around the forest, looking for the perfect tree.

“Hey, that one would look nice in your living room.” [Name] points to a tree.

Liechtenstein smiles, “I think so too! You have a good eye, Mx. [Name]. What do you think, big brother?” She looks at Switzerland.

“Let’s go take a closer look. I want to make sure it’s perfect.” He begins walking towards it, pulling Liechtenstein along.

While Switzerland studies and touches up the smaller-than-average pine tree, Liechtenstein stands next to [Name] and watches.

“Swiss sure is a perfectionist, huh Liechtenstein?” They smile at her.

“I guess a little bit. But I think it’s a good thing.”

“It can be…”

“Okay, this tree looks good! What do you think, Liechtenstein?” Switzerland stands up from his kneeling position and looks over.

“Me? I think it’s fine-”

“Good, go get the saw. And [Name], you help me.” He cuts Liechtenstein off.

Liechtenstein gets the saw, which wasn’t very far away and [Name] walks over to Switzerland.

“Just make sure it doesn’t fall on top of me.”

Cutting the tree was easy. Now they just had to transport it back through the thick snow… Switzerland and [Name] carried it on their shoulders while Liechtenstein carried the saw happily. It took a while, but they got the tree home safely.

“Okay. Thanks. You can go home now.” Switzerland nods at [Name].

Liechtenstein smiles at [Name] before they could respond and says, “Actually, I need someone to test my new gingerbread cookie recipe! You should stay. I’ll give some to you as a reward for helping us cut down the tree.”

“That sounds great!” [Name] excitedly says, stepping inside and beginning to shed their winter wear. “Can I help decorate the tree too?”

Liechtenstein looks at Switzerland a bit pleadingly.

“... Fine. They can help.” he crosses his arms over his chest, secretly happy about the company.

After Switzerland sets up the tree and makes sure it’s stable and after Liechtenstein gets the decorations out of the garage, it was time to decorate. Usually, Switzerland cut and picked the tree and Liechtenstein was the one who decorated it, since she had an eye for what looked nice. This year, Switzerland was joining though.

“Uhm… I don’t know…” Switzerland comments, looking at the tree from the other side. 

“It's not the most… Appealing tree, but we had fun decorating it. I think that’s all that matters.” [Name] says.

“Me too!” Liechtenstein smiles happily, “I’m really happy we got to do this together. All three of us. Now we can all enjoy the cookies together. I think I have a bit of leftover cake from Mr. Austria as well.”

Cookies and milk tasted nice after being outside for half the day. They had a pleasant conversation about Christmas.

[leeenuu]

by god, it’s kaja kallas with a javelin, going after switzerland