Keep up the good work!
Posted on 04/11/2002 5:01:11 AM PDT by maquiladora
In Tunisian Island of Djerba, Five Killed, 20 Injured When Truck Blows up Near Ancient Synagogue Suspected Terrorist Attack on Jewish Shrine.
TUNIS (Reuters) - A truck exploded near a Jewish shrine in the southern Tunisian island of Djerba on Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding 20, witnesses said.
A government source said the blast was an accident but witnesses suspected it could be an attack on a symbol of the Jewish community in the North African country amid Arab anger at the Israeli offensive against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Keep up the good work!
| UPDATE 1 - Truck blast near Jewish shrine kills 5 in Tunisia | |
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(Adds background on Tunisia's Jews)
TUNIS, April 11 (Reuters) - A truck exploded near an ancient
Jewish shrine on the southern Tunisian island of Djerba on
Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding 20,
witnesses said.
A government source said the blast near El Ghriba synagogue
was an accident, but witnesses suspected it may have been
prompted by Arab anger at Israel's offensive against Palestinian
militants in the West Bank.
Tunisia's Jewish community, its history rooted in antiquity,
once numbered in the tens of thousands but has dwindled in
recent years to some 3,000 people.
Jews have had rights equal to the Muslim majority in the
North African country from the time it was a French
protectorate. Authorities of the independent state established
in 1956 promised to uphold these rights.
An annual spring pilgrimage draws thousands of Jews to El
Ghriba each year from abroad, notwithstanding the state of
relations between Arabs and Jews. According to legend, the
festival was begun to celebrate Jewish victory over suffering.
Jewish sites in France have also come under attack in recent
weeks in violence linked to the Middle East, where the Israeli
army launched new West Bank raids on Thursday despite U.S.
pressure to end its offensive ahead of a peace mission by
Secretary of State Colin Powell.
((Tunis newsroom, +216-71 787538 fax +216-71 787454,
tunis.newsroom@reuters.com)
11 APR 2002 11:58:19
UPDATE 1-Truck blast near Jewish shrine kills 5 in Tunisia
A government source said the blast was an accident but witnesses suspected it could be an attack on a symbol of the Jewish community in the North African country amid Arab anger at Israel's offensive in the West Bank.
French radio reported that the Ghirba synagogue is one of the oldest in Africa.
As tensions have escalated in the Middle East, synagogues in Europe, notably in France, have been targeted by attacks. In the most serious case, a synagogue in the southern French city of Marseille was burned to the ground on March 31.
Attackers threw stones on Wednesday at a bus carrying pupils of a Jewish school in Paris, slightly injuring one of the students, in the latest assault on Jewish sites in France linked to violence in the Middle East.
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said in a statement he was "profoundly shocked" by the attack on the bus belonging to the Sinai school in the capital's 20th arrondissement, a popular neighbourhood home to both Muslims and Jews.
The statement did not give details of the attack and Paris police were not immediately available to comment. French radio France Info said a female student who was on the bus was slightly injured on the cheek.
"I condemn these actions most firmly and wish to express my solidarity and that of the Paris city council with those in charge of this establishment and the parents of pupils," Delanoe said.
He said the city had recently implemented a three-year plan to increase security near schools and synagogues.
The incident follows a spate of attacks against Jewish sites across France, ranging from graffiti to arson attempts.
While few arrests have been made, there is a widespread perception, shared by Muslim community leaders, that Muslim youths provoked by the deepening Middle East conflict and fed up with their lot in France are behind some of the attacks.
BTW, sad as this story is, it's good to see DEBKA get one right for a change... :-)
If you throw enough offal at a brick wall, one of the pies will stick.
Hey they got a better track record than CNN over here. And they report breaking stories, not just repeat the garbage all the others are saying.
It's a little paranoid to assume this Debka headline is correct, based on what we know right now. It's like screaming HATE CRIME based only on a report of a loud explosion in a minority neighborhood.
Holy war against America and Jews by Islam Religion.
History:
The Jewish community of Tunisia originated as home to scholars exiled from Palestine, from Talmudic sages of the 2nd to the 4th centuries to today’s Torah scribes. During the Byzantine period, Emperor Justinian excluded Jews from public life, prohibited their practice and ordering synagogues to become churches. Many Tunisian Jews fled into the mountains and the desert, joining secluded Berber communities there, and most remained there even after the Arabs conquered Tunisia in the 7th century, allowing Jews to practice again.
Jews lived openly in Tunisia, albeit as second-class citizens, until the Spanish invasions of 1535-1574 chased Jews inland once again. The Jewish community returned to the coast under Ottoman and thrived under French rule until 1940, when Vichy subjected them to anti-Semitic laws.
In 1942 Germans overran Tunisia, deported much of the Jewish population to labor camps and seized their property. The Tunisian Jewish community rebuilt itself through a decade of Allied rule until the country achieved independence in 1956.
The new Muslim government eliminated the Jewish Rabbinical tribunal and Jewish community councils, destroying the Jewish quarter of Tunis. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Muslims laid waste to the Great Synagogue of Tunis; much of the Jewish population fled to Israel throughout the 1970’s and ‘80’s, leaving a dedicated community of about 2000 Jews, primarily in Tunis and on the island of Djerba in the towns of Hara Keriba and Hara Sghira, where Jews have been worshipping at the El Ghirba Synagogue for almost 1900 years.
Today the Tunisian government watches the Jewish community closely but does not restrict Jewish practices. The government does appoint a committee which heads the community and manages most of its non-religious functions. There are five rabbis in Tunisia; there are even several kosher restaurants in Tunis and on Djerba, which has been an active, practicing Jewish community for over two millennia, where most of the community members observe Jewish dietary laws (kashrut).
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