Front cover.indd 1 4/26/2012 3:11:06 PM - Jewish Image Magazine

J E W I S H C O M M U N I T I E S A R O U N D T H E W O R L D
Tunisian’s Are Wary..
Continued from page 156
accessible to Israeli passport holders,
despite the lack of official recognition.
Yet, since Ben Ali was overthrown,
there have been hints that
Tunisia’s moderation—and its moderate
position toward Israel—could
be eroding.
When the Islamist Ennahda
party won 43% of the vote in
Tunisia’s first post-uprising parliamentary
elections, they wanted to
put Islamic law in the country’s new
constitution; it didn’t happen. 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.”
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 added.
However, Ghannouchi said that
there could be no normalization
158 t MAY 2012 t IMAGE also one of the few Arab countries
with Israel. “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.
Every major political party,
including Ennahda, condemned the
Salafists.
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 yeshivah and
a kosher food service, as well as
the Grande Synagogue de Tunis,
a 1930’s art-deco masterpiece still
The Grande Synagogue de Tunis
topped with a colossal, gilded Star
of David. The southern island of
Djerba has more than 350 students
in Jewish schools.
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
(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
said. “Ben Ali wanted to say to
France and America that the Jews
live until 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, said Lellouche,
who also is planning a Jewish
museum.
Still, he remains wary. The
Salafists have chanted ‘death to the
Jews’ during their marches three
times.”
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