New Tunisia President urges return of country's Jews

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Tunisia's newly elected president has called for the country's Jewish population to return.

The state news agency reported Monday that President Moncef Marzouk had told the country's Grand Rabbi Haim Bittan that Tunisia's Jews are full citizens.

Tunisia presently has a Jewish population of 1,500, but in the 1960s there were 100,000. Most left following the 1967 war between Israel and Arab countries and also due to government policy.

Marzouki also met with the top Christian and Muslim figures on Monday. He was elected last week.

Tunisians overthrew their longtime dictator President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January, with an Islamist party taking the most votes in the subsequent election.

The Islamists have formed a new government with two left wing parties.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/new-tunisia-president-urges-return-of-country-s-jewish-population-1.402444

Look what these Islamists have done now...

[^_^ 5,021]

He was elected last week.

Give it time.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Give it time.

More like: after decades of oppression under a dictator and international drug criminal, the new Tunisian government (elected by the people of Tunisia) is getting briskly to work at creating the kind of society that Tunisians want, including righting some wrongs of the past.

[^_^ 5,021]

More like: after decades of oppression under a dictator and international drug criminal, the new Tunisian government (elected by the people of Tunisia) is getting briskly to work at creating the kind of society that Tunisians want, including righting some wrongs of the past.

Any Jew crazy enough to return because of assurances given by an elected leader who has only been around a week is just not that bright.

I'm not saying this is not a good thing, I'm just saying this is not a big thing (yet).

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I am still waiting for Germany to invite all the Jews back.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Look what these Islamists have done now...

Oh really. I wonder if they are going to make sure they are all in a certain area too so they would be more easy to round up and destroy.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Oh really. I wonder if they are going to make sure they are all in a certain area too so they would be more easy to round up and destroy.

If that's what they wanted, they could have done it already. Jews live in Tunisia right now. And it seems many of them are not too inclined to leave...

Some members of Tunisia’s small Jewish community have responded after Israeli Vice-Prime Minister Silvan Shalom made another call on the Tunisian Jewish community to immigrate to Israel, this time in a Jerusalem ceremony in honor of Tunisian victims of the holocaust on December 7th.

According to the Tunisian news site “Business News” the Gabes, Tunisia born Israeli Vice-Prime Minister said, “I call on the Jews living in Tunisia to come and live in Israel as soon as possible.” But getting the nearly 1,800 strong Tunisian Jewish community to “make aliyah” or immigrate to Israel may not be an easy task for Shalom for now.

The owner of La Goulette’s Kosher restaurant, Mame Lilly, and former Constituent Assembly candidate Jacob Lellouche insisted that to him, Shalom’s comments were shallow. “Silvan can say whatever he wants. I am Tunisian, this is my country. I will stay here. Silvan can not tell me where to live.”

...

Avraham Chiche, is the director of the Jewish Old Age home in La Goulette. His family immigrated to Tunisia over 500 years ago from Spain during the Spanish inquisition. Chiche feels that Shalom’s comments have been political and he has no plans to leave Tunisia.

“Silvan Shalom needs to mind his own business and let us choose to live where we want to live, instead of making publicity statements for Israel,” said Chiche.

“We fear the small number of Salafists in Tunisia, but not Ennahda, the leadership of Ennahda came to us both before and after the election and assured us that our community will remain a vital part of Tunisian society while they are in government,” Chiche added.

Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda party currently holding a plurality of seats in Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly, the elected body charged with drafting the country’s new constitution echoed Chiche’s sentiment in an extensive radio interview in Arabic on a local station, Shems FM, the afternoon of December 8th. “Jews and Muslims have been living and working together peacefully here for thousands of years, why should we ask them to leave?” he stated when asked his thoughts on Shalom’s comments.

...

http://www.tunisia-live.net/2011/12/08/tunisian-jews-respond-to-silvan-shaloms-post-arab-spring-call-for-them-to-immigrate-to-israel/

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I am still waiting for Germany to invite all the Jews back.

Actually, German law already allows Jewish victims of the Holocaust, their children and grandchildren to restore/receive German citizenship, and many Jews already carry German passports:

According to a new study, some 100,000 Israelis possess a German passport.

...

Recent years have seen a surge in the number of offspring of Israelis of German descent applying for a passport. These figures are 10 times higher than the number of Israelis seeking citizenship in other European countries, like Poland of Romania.

The law allows Israelis whose original citizenship was revoked from them, their parents or their grandparents under Nazi laws to receive a German passport.

...

A new study conducted by Dr. Sima Salzberg of Bar-Ilan University, which will be published in the Eretz Acheret magazine edited by Bambi Sheleg, reveals that some 100,000 people living in Israel possess a German passport as well.

According to figures provided by the German Embassy, in the past few years about 7,000 Israelis have applied for a passport every year. More than 70,000 such passports have been granted since 2000.

Other countries like Poland, Romania and Austria have only issued up to 6,000 passports to Israelis throughout the past decade.

These figures point to an amazing growth in the popularity of the German passport, considering the fact that Germany and its symbols are still banned by quite a few Israelis – mainly Holocaust survivors or relatives of Holocaust victims.

The article, which quotes experts and academics, provides a series of reasons for the German passport's popularity among Israelis: Former citizens feel a real desire to regain a citizenship robbed from them or from their forefathers; Israelis are no longer ashamed to possess a German passport; and the younger generation can gain personal benefits.

Israelis with a German passport don't need a visa to enter the United States, can receive a scholarship for academic studies abroad, can enter countries which Israelis are banned from – and money, the study rules, erases any ideology.

...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4076384,00.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Actually, German law already allows Jewish victims of the Holocaust, their children and grandchildren to restore/receive German citizenship, and many Jews already carry German passports:

Interesting. I wonder if any of those intend to relocate back to Germany, or whether they just feel it is easier to travel under a German passport, rather than face the challenges of travelling under an Israeli passport.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Interesting. I wonder if any of those intend to relocate back to Germany, or whether they just feel it is easier to travel under a German passport, rather than face the challenges of travelling under an Israeli passport.

Some do use the German passport because it's easier (just as some Israelis use an American, French or whatever passport for the same reason.)

But there are a perhaps surprising number of Jews who have returned to Germany. Interesting article here:

"Israel's greatest concern at the moment is that there have never been more Israelis living abroad," said Rabbi Walter Homolka, principal of the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. He described it as a "brain drain" and said Germany was one of the "biggest expat centres".

In addition, many Jews who once might have considered emigrating to Israel - making their Aliya - have in the past few years been choosing to head to Germany instead.

In 2003, for example, 12,383 Jews reportedly chose to emigrate from the former Soviet Union to Israel. But 15,442 went to Germany. The latter country, which had conceived the idea of eliminating Jews altogether just 60 years previously, was more enticing to them than the promised land itself.

Such a powerful wave of immigration has multiplied Germany's Jewish population tenfold from the 20,000 or so at the time the Berlin Wall fell.

But the decision by Soviet Jews to choose Germany over Israel has been cause for serious friction between the two countries. Israel lobbied hard - and ultimately successfully - to persuade Germany to end its generous immigration laws for Jews which encouraged hundreds of thousands to head to the reunited European state after the collapse of communism.

...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3558319/Israels-anxiety-as-Jews-prefer-Germany.html

[mawilson 2,133]

Expect an exodus of Tunisian Jews from Tel-Aviv in the next couple of days!

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Oh really. I wonder if they are going to make sure they are all in a certain area too so they would be more easy to round up and destroy.

My money is on a new law that requires all Jews entering Tunisia to delouse first in the newly built showers next to the airport. I wouldn't trust this revolution lot.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Why_Me

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

My money is on a new law that requires all Jews entering Tunisia to delouse first in the newly built showers next to the airport. I wouldn't trust this revolution lot.

LOL riiiiiight.

Even Tel Aviv can't persuade Jews to leave Tunisia these days:

Despite Pressure From Tel Aviv, Tunisian Jews Have Little Interest In Emigrating To Israel

[Darnell 8,478]

I think it's a good thing. Time will tell if it was a SAFE thing.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I think it's a good thing. Time will tell if it was a SAFE thing.

It might be safer than living in Israel/Palestine.