Some three months after the Islamist party’s triumph in the Tunisian parliamentary elections, a prominent figure in the Jewish community told the BBC he has no intention of making aliyah.
“Me, I’m a Tunisian Jew,” said Atun Khalifa, a senior figure in the community. “I know my country well, and I’m against the proposition to leave because no one here is afraid. I don’t tell [Silvan Shalom] where to go!”
Khalifa was referring to the Tunisia-born Israeli vice prime minister, who said after the elections that for their own safety all of Tunisia’s remaining Jews should move to Israel.
The latest vote constituted the first free elections in Tunisia since the ouster of President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, the first leader to be deposed in the protests that sparked the Arab Spring. The success of the Ennahda party raised concerns that it could impose an Islamist code such as the one practiced in countries like Iran.
Most of Tunisia’s 1,500-member Jewish community live on the southern holiday island of Djerba, home to the famous El Ghriba synagogue, which has been in continuous use since the first century. Once numbering more than 100,000, most Tunisian Jews left after the Six-Day War. — ynetnews.com