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They are looking for demonstrators. Looking for them for their alleged involvement in the property damages that occurred on the sidelines of the Palestine demonstration in Bern on October 11, 2025. 101 people have already been identified, and just over 30 are still being sought. The police are now resorting to a drastic measure (drastic and unconstitutional): photos of these individuals will be published. Since even the police apparently still act as if this is about more than mere harassment, this publication will take place in two stages. First, pixelated images will be uploaded: this gives the demonstrators the chance to turn themselves in. If they fail to do so, the clear images will be released.
What is this all about? Are these dangerous individuals? Is blood dripping from their hands? Have they escaped from a high security prison for war criminals? Of course not. It's about approximately 600,000 Swiss francs in property damage. Broken windows, graffiti-covered facades. Not very nice, one might say.
Even less nice was the kettle that the police set up on October 11th at 5 p.m. It was autumn, the temperatures were dropping below ten degrees Celsius, and the demonstrators were held for twelve hours without water, food, blankets, or information. Over 500 of them. Collectively punished, not for property damage, but for participating in a demonstration. The unconstitutional actions of the Bern cantonal police should therefore come as no surprise; after all, they don't shy away from violating the Geneva Conventions either.
The kettle went unreported. The property damage was lamented at length (though it was rarely mentioned that this damage primarily affected companies that profit from the genocide in Gaza. The facades of companies whose cash reserves are surpassed only by the number of corpses in their basements). The reason why the demonstration took place at all, why over 5,000 people took to the streets, is omitted.
Since the beginning of the genocide against the Palestinian population, 75,000 people have been murdered. Their homes destroyed. Cities razed to the ground. Hunger created. Hunger perpetuated. Prisons filled. Humiliated. Tortured. Raped.
75,000 people. Murdered, exterminated, annihilated, slaughtered.
That is why this demonstration took place. Why they have been taken place and why they continue to do so. These pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Although this term falls short.
On October 11, 2025, there was a public refusal to accept genocide. We refuse to pretend that it is normal, that one simply has to live with it, that the power structures that carry out this genocide are acceptable. We refuse to pretend that Switzerland derives its wealth from kindness and peace.
To call this "pro-Palestine" is a pathetic denial of reality. It's simply a way to avoid the embarrassment of actually having to say genocide. Doing so would mean acknowledging 75,000 deaths. Accepting one's own indifference. Realizing that Switzerland's stable, safe, clean, and internationally attractive economy is simply more important than a human life. More important than upholding one's own values.
The actions of the police last year, as well as those currently being taken, are unconstitutional, violate the Geneva Conventions, and are more in line with the behaviour of authoritarian thugs than the executive branch of a healthy state. Shouldn't our police follow our legislation? Shouldn't our state obey international law?
Well, if they can't do so, then it's up to us to stand up for the human rights of all. To be loud, to shout: No one is free until we all are!
We should be able to do this without worry. At least in a free country, in a stable democracy, a functioning state governed by the rule of law.
Apparently though this is all coming apart.
A state cannot grant us rights. We already possess rights simply by virtue of being alive. Human rights are the rights of all people, because they are human. The state only intervenes when it infringes upon them. At best, it protects them. This is what Switzerland, our state, promises us, and this is the lie that is crumbling. On October 11th, this week, for the past 895 days.
As free people (who, after all, have to organise their coexistence somehow), it is our duty to fulfill our obligations and defend our rights. We must jealously monitor the powerful, because power devours what is not protected. We must nurture our society, we must nurture our values, we must nurture our freedom. This is what the demonstrators did on October 11th. One can exaggerate the property damage into crimes against democracy if one deems it absolutely necessary, but that doesn't change the fact that every anti-genocide demonstration does more for the preservation of our society than all these companies combined.
What we are currently witnessing is the gradual erosion of who we are.
It begins with the total dehumanization of others, of those who live far away. It begins with ignoring 75,000 murders.
It continues with the unconstitutional treatment of our own population. Initially, only those who have made themselves guilty through political participation.
Soon, everyone who can no longer find their way between what Switzerland pretends to be and what it actually is, will be made into victims. The feeling of alienation will be reason enough to disenfranchise.
But don't worry, as long as you pay your taxes, keep your head down, entrust all political matter to an exclusive class, and never, ever, ever, ever open your heart, you will be left in peace.
Do you want to live in this world? Do you want to give up everything that makes you a human being just to be able to pay your taxes in peace?
On October 11th, our freedom was once again executed in Bern. Quietly and subtly, with a gradual process of acclimatization, so as not to shock anyone. It happens constantly. It will only stop when we unite and protect our coexistence. The coexistence between you and me. We have to see that this is infinitely more valuable than the coexistence of the state and large corporations. Let's not be blinded. Let's recognize how they expose their own lies every single day. In Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran, in Sudan, in Syria, in the Congo, at Paradeplatz.
Let's refuse to participate. No one is free until we all are.
Sources:
1: Studentsforpalzh, cepunige, europe.palestine.network, cep.epfl, & students4palestine_bern. (2025, October 15). Instagram post [Image]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/DP1fqvlClNy/?img_index=1
2: Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF). (2025, October 11). Wetterbericht. https://www.srf.ch/meteo/wetterbericht#wetterbericht=2025-10-11
3: Genfer Abkommen (IV) zum Schutze von Zivilpersonen in Kriegszeiten. (1949, 12. August). Artikel 33. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/zpersabk_genf/
4: Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft [BV] vom 18. April 1999 (Stand 3. März 2024), SR 101.
5: United Nations Human Rights Council. (2025). From economy of occupation to economy of genocide: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (A/HRC/59/23). https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/59/23