Historically known for its neutrality, Switzerland maintained decades of politically neutral and pacifist policies towards international conflicts while seeking world peace as a motto. But even with such a pacifist approach the country remains a target for Islamism and Jihadism as it witnessed a spike in terrorism activities recently.

Switzerland has taken steps to combat these escalating threats, which appear to some as a reversal of its historically neutral stance, by targeting Islamist terrorists such as Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah.

A Swiss parliamentary committee has voted to ban Hamas as terrorist group on October 23rd and proposed to ban Hezbollah for the same reason. The ban will be ratified by the House of Representatives and Senate in the upcoming winter. The ban would carry up to 20 years in prison sentence for any person joining or aid these organizations.