Judith Schenk, a councillor in the Swiss city of Bern. Photo: Screenshot

A councillor in the Swiss city of Bern faced strong criticism on Friday after she shared an Instagram post with a comment blaming Jews for rising antisemitism and defaming Israelis as “child killers.”

Judith Schenk, a socialist deputy on the Bern city council, was pushing an article from the Qatar-funded news outlet Al Jazeera which quoted an Israeli government official calling on Israeli forces to enter Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where Hamas terrorists have regrouped.

“No. You must respect the ceasefire ordered by the UN Security Council,” Schenk wrote. “Cursed child killers, you harm Jews around the world.”

Schenk’s use of language led critics to point out that the allegation that Jews kill children is an outgrowth of the medieval blood libel which falsely asserted that Jews use the blood of Christian children in their religious rituals.

Never Again is Now (NAIN) — a Swiss NGO devoted to combating antisemitism — responded with condemnation. “We would not have believed that such a statement is possible in the 21st century,” the group said in a statement.

In a statement to the Swiss news outlet 20 minutes, Schenk’s socialist colleagues on the council distanced themselves from her words.

“It is clear that antisemitism has no place in our society. We do not tolerate it, neither inside nor outside the party,” the statement said.

Schenk later apologized for her post, saying that she had been motivated by concern for Palestinian children in Gaza. She said her statement had been addressed to both “the Israeli government and Hamas terrorists and to all those who support the murder and the violence against the civilian population on both sides.”

The number of antisemitic incidents in Switzerland has leapt since the Oct. 7 atrocities by Hamas in Israel and the Israeli government’s subsequent response against the Islamist terrorist group in Gaza, according to a study by the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG). The data showed the number of incidents shot up to 155 in 2023 — most of these after Oct. 7 — from 57 the previous year.