Jewish pilgrimage to Tunisian island stirs calls for criminalizing normalization with Israel
The annual Jewish pilgrimage to El-Ghriba synagogue in Tunisia has rekindled the popular and political debate over the issuance of a law criminalizing normalization with Israel.
TUNIS, Tunisia — The annual Jewish pilgrimage to El-Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba has rekindled the popular and political debate over the issuance in Tunisia of a law criminalizing normalization with Israel.
The Palestinian cause is an issue that the majority of Tunisians support, even if this backing is often superficial.
In a May 26 statement, the moderate Islamist Ennahda movement denounced what they claimed was the exploitation of the pilgrimage to El-Ghriba synagogue to officialize forms of normalization with Israel. “Most Tunisians have expressed their rejection of normalization, as the minimum support they can offer the Palestinian people,” the statement said.
Yet Ennahda said that it values coexistence between religions and respect for religious rituals.
