Tunisia's President Calls on Jews to Return

Arutz Sheva ^ | 20/12/11 | Elad Benari

[Eleutheria5]

Tunisia’s newly elected president on Monday called the country’s Jewish population to return to his country, The Associated Press reported.

During a meeting with the country’s Grand Rabbi Haim Bittan, President Moncef Marzouki said that Tunisia’s Jews are full-fledged citizens and those who had left the country were welcome to return.

Today, Tunisia has a Jewish population of only 1,500, but in the 1960s there were 100,000 Jews in the country. Most left following the 1967 Six Day War, but the emigration to Israel started in the 1050's.

Most Tunisian Jews now live on the resort island of Djerba, near the country’s border with Libya, once called the Island of Cohanim because so many Jewish families who could trace their lineage to Moses' brother Aaron, the first High Priest lived there. A 2000 year old synagogue, the El Ghriba, is one of the oldest in the world, and located on the island.

Marzouki’s remarks come in response to a call by Cabinet Minster and Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom for Tunisian Jews to move to Israel.

Shalom, who is of Tunisian origin and who made an official visit to the country in 2005, recently said that Jews in Tunisia should "settle in Israel as soon as possible.”

Shalom’s call was rejected by Muslim leaders in Tunisia. The Islamist Ennahda party, which recently won the country’s first post-Arab Spring election, said that “Tunisia remains, today and tomorrow, a democratic state that respects its citizens and looks after them regardless of their religion…. Members of the Jewish community in Tunisia are citizens enjoying all their rights and responsibilities.”

The Islamic party said Shalom’s remarks were “irresponsible” and “irrational,” and it criticized the timing of his comments.

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[Eleutheria5]

We promise to treat you good, so long as you know your place, and that dhimme will be enforced only through established, unwritten social norms, and no pogroms or blood libels until the next one. Come home....

[massgopguy]

“Come, let us deal shrewdly with them.” - Ramses II

[Old Sarge]

“Do come back, Jews, we’re reloading!”

[GeronL]

Hitler didn’t want them to leave either.

rhetorical comment

[GonzoGOP]

“Come, let us deal shrewdly with them.” - Ramses II

This is actually very shrewd. They are saying the Jews have the right of return to Tunisia as full citizens. Now even if every Jew who left in 1967 and their descendants returned it would be a blip against the islamist majority Tunisia. But if the right of return is accepted as international law then all the Palestinians can return to Israel. And they will then simply vote Israel out of existence in the next election. Very shrewd indeed

[rhombus]

in the 1960s there were 100,000 Jews in the country

They're supporting a right of return? ;-) What if 100,000 (at least) just showed up one day? I'm sure that'll be fine with Tunisia. snicker

[WayneS]

Come in to my parlor said the spider to the fly...

[2banana]

Do they get their property back?

[Thane_Banquo]

[Nonstatist]

Why would they want to move to a sh*thole like Tunisia? GDP per capita is about 4K, plus there lots of rad Muslims there that would love to gut a Jew, just for kicks.

[Nonstatist]

This is what passes for “clever” in ragheadland. The average knucklehead over there hates,hates,hates Jews ; their problem with Islamist nutsoids is a severe one.

[Eleutheria5]

That was the post of the day.

[Eleutheria5]

Wanted: Dhimmes of the Mosaic faith. Must be willing to accept blame for everything, including anything Israel is accused of, and the fact that they haven’t converted to Islam yet, suffer slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, suck it up and take it “like a man” because they are not considered men, receive occasional beatings, stabbings. Applicants will be tolerated, sometimes even liked, but must not presume to be accepted. Punishments will be exacted for being handy when we want to punish someone. Businesses will be allowed to flourish, accept when we are looting them. Families will be allowed to thrive in privacy, unless we want one of your wives or daughters. Also must be willing to give advice to high government officials, and have entire community blamed if advice goes awry.

[decimon]

...but the emigration to Israel started in the 1050's.

BC?

[Eleutheria5]

Right after the Holocaust which never happened from 1033 to 1046. Now we know where the confusion started from. One little digit, and all their dates are off.

[Zhang Fei]

They’re just looking for suckers. I suspect the Jewish emigres who had all their property confiscated (probably reflecting the accumulated efforts of many generations) the last time around won’t be looking to return any time soon. The unfortunate reality of bleeding heart Westerners is that none of these blots on humanity will be starving to death any time soon, although it couldn’t happen to a better people.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Eleutheria5. The Jewish community in Tunisia arrived during the time of Ezra, and stayed put until the bombs started going off during the past decade. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[dinodino]

What the heck do Palestinians have to do with Tunisia? That makes no sense.

[GonzoGOP]

What the heck do Palestinians have to do with Tunisia?

It is the legal concept of "Right of Return". The idea that if you or one of your ancestors walk out of a country, said country is required to let you back in later. One of the best counters to this argument is that no other country recognizes such a right so why should Israel.

Imagine if all the people descended from Irish ancestors decided to go to Ireland. The vast majority of the Irish who came to America were political and economic refugees fleeing a country occupied by a foreign power. Would Ireland automatically recognize them as instant Irish citizens? Heck no; there are 36,278,332 Americans of Irish ancestry. Ireland only has a population of 6,197,100. The Irish would instantly become a tiny minority in their own country.

However the right of return is the key to the whole Palestinian argument. An Arab country recognizing right of return gives it cover. If they can get the Europeans to recognize it as a legal right then Israel is one step closer to going away. Not with bullets, but with ballots.

[dinodino]

I think you’re missing a crucial point: most of those who left did so during the Sixties. They, of course, are still Tunisian citizens. We’re not talking about people who left 300 years ago.