Tunisian President Marzouki pledges safety for Tunisian Jews

Posted on JTA April 11, 2012 DJERBA, Tunisia (JTA) – On a visit to a synagogue that had been bombed 10 years ago, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said Tunisia is committed to the security of its Jews and that they are equal citizens under the law. Marzouki also said he had invited a group of Jewish school children to visit his office at the Carthage Presidential Palace. The president has recently invited groups of school children to his office as a way of opening the Tunisian presidency to the public following last year’s revolution. Marzouki made his remarks as part of a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the 10-year anniversary of the 2002 Al Qaeda truck bombing attack on the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba. Twenty-one people were killed in the attack. Some Jews in the country have been unsettled by demonstrations in Tunisia over the last three months in which ultra-conservative religious Salafi groups with alleged ties to Al Qaeda called on Muslims to kill or wage war against Jews. Jewish community leaders applauded Marzouki’s visit to the synagogue and said they were optimistic about the future of Tunisia’s 2,600-year-old Jewish community. Tunisia has an estimated 1,500 Jews. “It is a blessing to live together as Tunisians. Muslims and Jews, our bonds challenge the hatred of the Salafists,” said Perez Trabelsi, president of the El Ghariba synagogue and the Jewish community of Hara Segira, Djerba. “The day-to-day living situation for Jews has not changed since the revolution, and we hope it will never change. We don’t live in fear.” Each year, Jewish pilgrims from France, Israel and elsewhere come to the El Ghriba synagogue to celebrate the yahrzeit, or anniversary of the death, of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the 2nd-century Torah scholar and author of the Zohar. This year, the pilgrimage will fall on May 9 and 10. “The tourism season is coming soon and many Jews are interested in visiting Tunisia,” said Trabelsi’s son, Rene, who owns a kosher hotel and resort in nearby Sidi Mansour, Djerba as well as a Paris-based travel agency that organizes Jewish religious tours in Tunisia. “I am sure the government will put an end to these hateful speeches that we have seen in videos,” he added. Read More%d/%m/%Y لا تعليقات

JTA April 11, 2012 DJERBA, Tunisia (JTA) – On a visit to a synagogue that had been bombed 10 years ago, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said Tunisia is committed to the security of its Jews and that they are equal citizens under the law. Marzouki also said he had invited a group of Jewish school […]

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Tunisia marks 10 years since bloody synagogue bomb

Posted on Associated Press April 11, 2012 UNIS, Tunisia – Tunisia's president reassured his nation's Jews of their place in society Wednesday in a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of an al-Qaida truck bomb at a synagogue on the island of Djerba that killed 21 people. President Moncef Marzouki flew to the island accompanied by Tunisia's grand rabbi, Haim Bitan, to lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence to remember the victims of the truck bombing, which included 14 German and two French tourists. The ambassadors of France and Germany attended, along with the families of the victims. "All forms of discrimination against Jews, assaults on their lives, possessions or religion are forbidden," he said in a speech inside the synagogue, as he unveiled a plaque. "Tunisian Jews are an integral part of our people and they share all the rights and duties. Whoever violates their rights, attacks all Tunisians." The speech comes at a time when Tunisia's small, 1,500-strong Jewish community is facing pressure from ultraconservative Muslim groups, after an uprising last year overthrew Tunisia's decades-old secular dictatorship. At a demonstration of Salafi activists on March 25 calling for the implementation of Islamic law, a Muslim religious leader chanted slogans to "prepare for the fight against the Jews," prompting the leader of the Jewish community, Roger Bismuth, to file a lawsuit against him. "This trip is a message of solidarity and respect for the Jewish community of Tunisia whose members are considered full citizens," Adnan Mancer, the spokesman for the president, told The Associated Press. He said Marzouki, a prominent human rights campaigner against the old dictatorship, is "saying he is a president for all Tunisians, Muslims, Christians and Jews." The Israeli government, which called for the country's remaining Jews to emigrate last December, welcomed Marzouki's move as a positive sign. "It can signal a renewal of the pact between the new democratic government and the Jewish community," said an official with the Foreign Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. The official said a member of the ruling Islamist party should have attended the ceremony. The moderate Islamist Ennahda dominated October's elections and leads a coalition with two secular parties, including Marzouki's. Ennahda condemned the anti-Semitic chants by Salafists at the time. Perez Trabelsi, the head of the Jewish community on the island of Djerba, where most of Tunisia's Jews live, said the president's move "encourages the rapprochement between Tunisia's Muslims and Jews." For his part, Bismuth described the move as a "positive symbolic gesture by the president" that should stimulate tourism, which he said was hard hit by publicity over the anti-Semitic slogans. Rene Trabelsi, a Jew of Tunisian origin residing in Paris, said in a telephone interview that many Tunisian Jews living in France had planned to visit Djerba for Passover but had canceled their trips after hearing the media reports. "They were traumatized by these dangerous statements which came after the drama of Toulouse," he said, referring to the shootings of four Jews, including three children, in France by an al-Qaida sympathizer. He said Marzouki's move could restart Jewish tourism, especially for next month's pilgrimage to Djerba. Jews are believed to have lived in Djerba for the past 2,500 years and the community in Tunisia itself numbered 100,000 in 1960s. Most left following the 1967 war between Israel and Arab countries. The Djerba synagogue is a pilgrimage site for North African Jews a month after the holiday of Passover, which will fall on May 9 and 10 this year. According to Rafram Chaddad, an Israeli of Tunisian origin, Jews have long felt comfortable in Tunisia. He said many Jews of Tunisian origin who moved to France in the past 20 years own homes in Tunis and visit in the summer and that Israeli tour operators used to send groups of Tunisian-born Israelis to the country before the revolution. ___ Associated Press writer Daniel Estrin contributed to this report from Jerusalem. Read More%d/%m/%Y لا تعليقات

Associated Press April 11, 2012 UNIS, Tunisia – Tunisia’s president reassured his nation’s Jews of their place in society Wednesday in a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of an al-Qaida truck bomb at a synagogue on the island of Djerba that killed 21 people. President Moncef Marzouki flew to the island accompanied by Tunisia’s grand […]

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Tunisian Judiciary Investigates Case of Jewish Community President Roger Bismuth Against Salafist Preacher

Posted on Tunisia Live April 5th, 2012 By: Kouichi Shirayanagi The prosecutor at the Tunisian Court of First Instance has formally accepted the complaint filed by the President of the Tunisian Jewish Community, Roger Bismuth, and has opened an investigation into the circumstances in which a Salafist preacher called for Tunisian youth to wage war against the country’s Jews. On Friday night, Tunisia’s small Jewish community of just over 1,500 will begin their week-long festival of Passover. For Bismuth, the week leading up to Passover has been particularly busy. He has met with numerous Tunisian government officials and media outlets to rally support for his case against those threatening violence. Pointing out that the country is in dire need of attracting tourists and foreign investments to Tunisia following the Tunisian Revolution, Bismuth argued that the intolerance of some have turned off much needed international visitors who support the Tunisian economy. His efforts to gain the backing of the Tunisian government for the nearly 2,600 year-old community seem to be working. He has garnered declarations of support from the Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, the head of the recently elected National Constituent Assembly Mustapha Ben Jafaar, the Minister of Religious Affairs Nourredine Khadmi, and Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Islamist Ennahda political party, which received 89 of 217 seats in Tunisia’s most recent election. “We have a celebration [passover] coming and a group of families from abroad booked rooms in a Kosher hotel in our country, but they canceled at the last minute [after the March 25th Salafist protest]… that is to say, what happens in the street does not just concern the Jewish people, it concerns everybody,” Bismuth said after his meeting with Ben Jafaar. Bismuth argued that tourists follow what other tourists are doing and that calls for killing people by religious hardliners keep tourists out and the jobs they generate away from Tunisia. The Al-Cherouk newspaper reported on April 3rd that after a meeting with Bismuth, Khadmi and the Imam of the popular Al-Fateh mosque in downtown Tunis declared their support for the Tunisian Jewish Community. “The Jewish community in Tunisia is living here on the principle of equal Tunisian citizenship,” Khadmi said after his meeting with Bismuth. “Harming any monotheistic religion is in contradiction with the rules of Islam and is inconsistent with the Tunisian spirit that is characterized by civilization, openness and peaceful co-existence,” he added. Al-Cherouk also reported that Khadmi agreed to reinforce his Ministry’s communication with the Jewish Community and invited Bismuth to a future government-organized forum on the issue of human rights and citizenship. The Tunisian Daily Al-Maghreb reported in a recent interview with Bismuth that Ghannouchi had called Bismuth the very day that a crowd chanted calls for killing Jews as a religious duty while awaiting the arrival of senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on the tarmac at the Tunis-Carthage airport. According to the report, Bismuth originally thought the chants were from a small Salafist minority. However, Ghannouchi allegedly told him that “our sons” were involved and apologized for the chanting. Ahmed Ellali contributed to this report. Read More%d/%m/%Y لا تعليقات

Tunisia Live April 5th, 2012 By: Kouichi Shirayanagi The prosecutor at the Tunisian Court of First Instance has formally accepted the complaint filed by the President of the Tunisian Jewish Community, Roger Bismuth, and has opened an investigation into the circumstances in which a Salafist preacher called for Tunisian youth to wage war against the […]

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Tunisia’s Jews keep wary eye on political developments

Posted on JTA April 3, 2012 By Armin Rosen TUNIS (JTA) -- Tucked on a quiet side street blocks from the Mediterranean Sea, the last kosher restaurant in the Tunisian capital is a thriving center of Jewish tradition in a country of 10 million with nearly an entire Arab and Muslim population. Yet Jacob Lellouche, who has owned and operated Mamie Lily since it opened 16 years ago, says his business is hardly a Jewish bubble. Most of his customers are Muslim, and on a recent Thursday night, the restaurant's cozy dining room is dominated by a large party of Tunisians sipping boukha -- a fig-based liquor that Tunisian Jews traditionally drink on the Sabbath -- while chattering in Arabic and French. Lellouche says the guests are liberal activists who have come to the restaurant to draft a statement on freedom of speech in the aftermath of the revolution that toppled Zine Abdine Ben Ali's regime in January 2011. "The civil society in Tunisia sustained the Jewish community of this country," says Lellouche, explaining that relations between Tunisia's educated and politically engaged citizens and the country's 1,500 Jews have always been mutually beneficial. "As long as there are Jews in the world there will be Jews in Tunisia," he says. But more than a year after Tunisia became the first Arab country to overthrow its dictator through a popular, nonviolent uprising, two religion-inspired political movements are challenging Tunisia's cosmopolitan political and social attitudes, and are threatening to reverse the country's long-standing moderation toward Israel and the Jews. Located just 80 miles off the coast of Sicily, Tunisia has been colonized by foreign powers from the Roman Empire to modern France. But unlike other countries with a long colonial history, Tunisia has historically been a place where Middle Eastern and European values and ideas have converged, reinforcing one another without causing conflict or social discord. Educated Muslim Tunisians acknowledge that the Jews are a crucial part of this history. "The Jews came to Tunis and developed commerce and trade here, and many came after they were expelled from Iberia," says Abdel-Hamid Larguech, a history professor at Manoura University. "These were factors in how Tunisia became more cosmopolitan." Kedya Ben Saidane, who has researched the country's Berber community, claims Berbers living in Tunisia first began practicing Judaism nearly 3,000 years ago. Modern Tunisia has subsequently had a history of moderation on Israel-related issues. In 1965, Habib Bourguiba, the president from 1957 until 1987, caused a brief crisis in relations between Tunisia and several other Arab governments when he outlined a plan for recognizing Israel in exchange for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Official diplomatic contact between Israel and Tunisia, established in 1996, lasted just four years, yet Tunisia does not take as hard line a position on the Jewish state as other Arab countries. "Tunisian Israelis come here with no problem at all," says Rabbi Haim Bittan, the leader of the small Jewish community in Tunis, adding that travel to Israel is fairly routine for the country's Jews. Tunisia is also one of the few Arab countries accessible to Israeli passport holders, despite the lack of official recognition. Yet since Ben Ali's ouster, there have been hints that Tunisia's moderation -- and its moderate position toward Israel -- could be eroding. In October, the Islamist Ennahda party won 43 percent of the vote in Tunisia's first post-uprising parliamentary elections, putting an explicitly religious party in charge of a country with a long-standing secular and republican tradition. Although Ennahda in late March officially dropped its demand for Islamic law in the country's new constitution, many Tunisians still fear that the party could take the country in an uncomfortably radical direction. Party co-founder Rached Ghannouchi has publicly praised the mothers of suicide bombers and spoken about "the extinction of Israel." "Ennahda's election favored the emergence of a new fundamentalist section of the society, the extremists," Larguech says. "And the two enemies of the democratic revolution are populism and extremism." Ennahda confirmed moderates' fears by proposing a constitutional ban on normalization of ties with Israel during a mock parliament held just after Ben Ali's ouster. A year later there is almost no mainstream support for such a provision. Ennahda, which has proven responsive to the criticism from the country's large secular-liberal wing, also now opposes the normalization ban. Walid Bennani, vice president of Ennahda's parliamentary contingent, says his party believes that peaceful relations with the Jewish state would be possible as soon as Israel makes peace with the Palestinians. "The constitution is not the place to legislate relations between countries," he says. However, Ghannouchi said Sunday that there could be no normalization with Israel, according to the official TAP news agency. "Tunisians' problem is with Zionism, not with Judaism," he reportedly said. Tunisia also has a growing and increasingly vocal Salafist movement. Tunisia's Salafists are Islamic fundamentalists inspired by Saudi Arabia's restrictive version of political Islam who felt oppressed by the secular, republican character of the Bourguiba and Ben Ali regimes. On March 23, Salafist protesters chanted anti-Semitic slogans in downtown Tunis, provoking a tense standoff with a group of artists gathered in front of Tunisia's national theater. Every major political party, including Ennahda, condemned the Salafists, whose chants included "death to the Jews." A week later, Salafists called for a ban on normalization with Israel in a protest in front of the National Assembly building in Tunis. So far, Tunisia's moderate and secular political culture has kept the Salafists on the social and political fringes while frustrating Ennahda's ambitions for an overtly Islamic constitution. And as far as the Jews are concerned, Tunisian moderation has endured during the transitional period. In Tunis itself, Jewish life is more developed than in most other Arab capitals. Although only 500 Jews remain in the city, it boasts a Jewish school, a yeshiva and a kosher food service -- as well as the Grande Synagogue de Tunis, a 1930s art-deco masterpiece still topped with a colossal, gilded Star of David. The southern island of Djerba has more than 350 students in Jewish schools, according to Bittan. The post-revolutionary sense of openness has yielded one major gain for Tunisia's Jewish community: After Ben Ali stepped down, Lellouche launched Dar el-Dekra (Arabic for "House of Memory"), which he describes as the first Tunisian organization aimed at celebrating and promoting the country's Jewish heritage. "Ben Ali used to instrumentalize the Jewish community," Lellouche says. "Ben Ali wanted to say to France and America that the Jews live till now in Tunisia because he wants them to live here." With Ben Ali gone, there's a new opportunity to develop Jewish life in Tunisia without contributing to the public image of a widely despised autocrat, says Lellouche, who also is planning a Jewish museum. Still, he remains wary. "The Salafists have now chanted ‘death to the Jews' during their marches three times," Lellouche says. "The first two times they were talking about Zionists. But I think the third time they were talking about the Jews themselves." Read More%d/%m/%Y لا تعليقات

JTA April 3, 2012 By Armin Rosen TUNIS (JTA) — Tucked on a quiet side street blocks from the Mediterranean Sea, the last kosher restaurant in the Tunisian capital is a thriving center of Jewish tradition in a country of 10 million with nearly an entire Arab and Muslim population. Yet Jacob Lellouche, who has […]

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Tunisia Jewish leader welcomes reproof of fanatics

Posted on Jerusalem Post April 1, 2012 By Gil Shefler Roger Bismuth credits Islamist party for pledge to protect country's Jews but says actions speak louder than words. A Jewish leader in Tunisia said on Sunday that the government’s condemnation of a protest last week where participants called for the murder of Jews was reassuring, but added he expected it to take action. Roger Bismuth, head of the Jewish community, said he was forced to speak out after some 7,000 Salafis gathered in the main square of Tunis and shouted chants against Jews. “The man who was preaching said ‘slaughter the Jews, kill the Jews,’” he said. “This time I had to react very strongly and I did.” Bismuth said he gave over 70 interviews to different media in the wake of the demonstration. Rashid Ghannushi, the leader of Ennahda, the Islamist party that won the recent elections, responded sharply by saying the new government will protect the country’s 1,500 Jewish community. “Tunisia defends the rights of all citizens,” he was quoted as saying by local media. “We will fight for the rights of all our minorities, including the Jewish minority.” Bismuth welcomed Ghannushi’s statement but added that time will tell if the commitment is upheld. “Now I have good words but I’m waiting to see the actions,” Bismuth said. “I did my best and now I have to see the results.” But while Ghannushi’s tone toward the nation’s Jews has been conciliatory, he has maintained a hostile attitude toward Israel. On Sunday, he accused former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of “collaborating” with the “Zionists” and “betraying the Palestinians,” the country’s official news agency TAP reported. “The problem for Tunisians is Zionism and not Judaism,” he was quoted as saying. Tunisian protesters toppled the regime of longtime dictator Ben Ali last year, inspiring a wave of uprisings across the Arab world. The upheaval, known collectively as the Arab Spring, removed several secularist rulers from power but some worry of a rise of Islamism in their stead. Many observers see Tunisia, where the previously outlawed Ennahda won the elections earlier this year, as a bellwether for the rest of the region. Read More%d/%m/%Y لا تعليقات

Jerusalem Post April 1, 2012 By Gil Shefler Roger Bismuth credits Islamist party for pledge to protect country’s Jews but says actions speak louder than words. A Jewish leader in Tunisia said on Sunday that the government’s condemnation of a protest last week where participants called for the murder of Jews was reassuring, but added […]

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President of the Tunisian Jewish Community to Take Salafist Preacher to Court

Posted on Tunisia Live March 27, 2012 By: Kouichi Shirayanagi The President of the Tunisian Jewish Community Roger Bismuth has expressed deep concern over the security of Tunisia’s Jewish Community, and has called on the government to take immediate action against those who incite hatred against others. During Sunday’s Salafist demonstration on Avenue Habib Bourguiba, one Salafist preacher shouted “young people rise up, let’s wage a war against the Jews,” to a cheering crowd chanting “God is great.” Bismuth announced that he will be taking legal action against the Salafist preacher. “We can’t have this violent speech in our country… it is not the first time this has happened… it is totally unacceptable and I am going to take him to court,” said Bismuth. While Bismuth told Tunisia Live he has been unable to meet today with Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, he paid a visit to the President of the Constituent Assembly Mustapha Ben Jaafar, who strongly condemned the Salafist preacher. Mofdi Mossadi, a spokesman for Ben Jaafar, told local radio station Mosaique FM that Ben Jaafar strongly condemned verbal abuse against Tunisia’s Jewish community and that it was critical that hateful rhetoric end. During a press conference yesterday, Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia’s Islamist political party Ennahda, promised to defend the rights of all of Tunisia’s minority communities. “Tunisia defends the rights of all citizens. We will fight for the rights of all our minorities, including the Jewish minority,” Ghannouchi said. According to Tunisian State News agency, TAP, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has also condemned “all calls to fight Jews,” and deemed the incident on Avenue Habib Bouguiba to be an “isolated act.” Bismuth reported that many Tunisian Muslims have called him to thank him for speaking out against the Salafist preacher, and have expressed their solidarity with Tunisia’s Jewish community. “If we don’t do something about this now, incidents like this will only get worse,” said Bismuth. Read More%d/%m/%Y لا تعليقات

Tunisia Live March 27, 2012 By: Kouichi Shirayanagi The President of the Tunisian Jewish Community Roger Bismuth has expressed deep concern over the security of Tunisia’s Jewish Community, and has called on the government to take immediate action against those who incite hatred against others. During Sunday’s Salafist demonstration on Avenue Habib Bourguiba, one Salafist […]

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Hello world!

Posted on Welcome to Jimena Experience. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!%d/%m/%Y لا تعليقات

Welcome to Jimena Experience. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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