Antisemitism in Tunisia: hundreds of rioters broke into the Tunisian gravesite of Raabi Yosef al-Ma’aravi, a student of the Holy Ari, and burned and wrecked it.
The holy gravesite near the city of Gabes in southern Tunisia was set on fire by Arab rioters, according to leaders of the local Jewish community and as confirmed by Chaim Damari, Chairman of the Tunisian Jewry organization. “People set fire and rioted at the gravesite on Monday evening,” said Trabelsi Perez, head of the Jewish community of Djerba, the Tunisian island containing a large Jewish presence, as well as president of the el-Ghriba synagogue, the oldest synagogue on the African continent on the island. “This surprises me because there were police officers not far from the area,” he continued. The community also noted that “the goal of the arson was pure hatred for Jews and not from any other motive.”
The Most Serious Attack on Tunisian Jews Occurred in Djerba in 2022
Al-Ghriba was the target of an al-Qaeda truck bomb in April 2022. 21 people were killed: 14 German tourists, 5 Tunisians, and two Frenchmen. Perez also noted that the windows of three or four cars in the Jewish quarter of Houmt Souk, the capital of Djerba, were shattered on Friday. He added that “it’s calm in Djerba, but people from the Jewish community are fearful.” The Jewish community in Tunisia numbers 1,600 people, most of them in Djerba.
Despite the Assurances, Jews in Tunisia are Fearful
Khalifa Atoun, Vice President of the Jewish community of Tunisia, confirmed the fire at the gravesite 15 km from Gebas, but he put the event in the perspective of the present instability in the state. “Official building were burnt, it can happen to anyone,” he told the French news agency. In practice, Jews in Tunisia are scared but community leaders still express faith in Tunisian authorities.
The burning of the gravesite joins with a series of riots during the last week throughout the Arab world, including mob attacks on the Israeli embassies in Jordan, Turkey, Morocco, and elsewhere as a sign of solidarity with Gaza.
