TUNIS, April 11, 2012 (AFP)
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki commemorated the 10th anniversary of a deadly attack on an ancient synagogue Wednesday, a move welcomed by the Arab nation’s tiny Jewish population.
On April 11, 2002 the Tunisian Nizar Nawar carried out an Al-Qaeda-claimed suicide attack on the synagogue at Ghriba on the Mediterranean island of Djerba.
He drove a truck to what is considered the oldest Jewish site in Africa then detonated the vehicle, killing 21 people, including 14 German tourists.
Marzouki, after attending Wednesday’s ceremony, met victims’ families.
Jewish community member Elie Trabelsi said it was the first time a president had officially commemorated the attack.
“For us, it’s a very strong and important message,” Trabelsi said. “It’s a remarkable gesture that brings back trust.”
Tunisia’s tiny Jewish minority has dwindled from 100,000 or so at the time of independence from France in 1956 to just 1,500 today.
The community is on edge following the chanting of antisemitic slogans at hardline Salafist Muslim rallies.
After the third such incident this year, Tunisian community representative Roger Bismuth filed a legal complaint. He said he was confident the slogan authors would be prosecuted.
Bismuth said Marzouki’s appearance at the ceremony would help foreign visitors feel safe about visiting the synagogue, site of an annual pilgrimage for Jews across the region who go there to mark the Lag Baomer holiday.
The synagogue dates back 2,500 years and, legend has it, was built by fleeing Jews following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.
The 2002 attack caused a sharp drop in tourism to the island of Djerba.
Nawar’s uncle was sent to 20 years in prison for complicity in the attack, and in France a German man who had converted to Islam was in 2009 sentenced to 18 years for complicity, and the attacker’s brother sentenced to 12 years.
