President Kais Saied refutes all state anti-Semitism after Djerba attack

President Kais Saied refuted, Friday, May 13, any allegation of state anti-Semitism in Tunisia, after a deadly shooting perpetrated by a gendarme near a synagogue on the island of Djerba. The attack took place on Tuesday evening as hundreds of worshipers completed the annual Jewish pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, the oldest in Africa.

Three gendarmes and two faithful (an Israeli-Tunisian and a Franco-Tunisian) were killed by the assailant’s shots, before he was shot dead by the police. The Tunisian authorities denounced a “criminal” attack, but refrained from calling it a “terrorist” or to give it an anti-Semitic dimension.

“Red Lines”

In France, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office, competent because of the French nationality of one of the victims, opened on Wednesday “an investigation by the assassination chief in relation to a terrorist enterprise”. “Always, relentlessly, we will fight against anti-Semitic hatred”said French President Emmanuel Macron, condemning the attack, in a message posted on Twitter.

Referring to this attack during a meeting with several ministers, Kais Saied repeated that Tunisia “will remain safe despite desperate attempts to undermine its stability”, according to a press release from the presidency. He thanked the States which “expressed their solidarity” with his country after the attack while rejecting “any foreign interference because the sovereignty of Tunisia and its people are red lines that cannot be crossed”.

He also has “expressed his astonishment at the reactions involving accusations of anti-Semitism against Tunisia”, without specifying what he was referring to. In support of his statements, he listed the legal texts guaranteeing freedom of worship and the rights of minorities, particularly Jews, in Tunisia. The Ghriba pilgrimage is at the heart of the traditions of Tunisians of the Jewish faith, who number only 1,500, compared to 100,000 before independence in 1956.