Mob reported to attack abandoned synagogue in Tunisia’s Sfax
Local reports say rioters set fire to several trees in courtyard, in second attack on a Tunisian synagogue since October 7
A mob in Tunisia targeted an abandoned synagogue in the southeastern city of Sfax, setting fire on Sunday to trees in the building’s courtyard, local media reported.
No one was hurt in the reported attack, which took place in a city that is not presently home to any of Tunisia’s small Jewish population.
It marked the latest apparent antisemitic attack during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which began on October 7, when thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel from Gaza, murdering some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostage. The incident in Tunisia also occurred at the same time as prolonged negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a hostage release and truce deal, which are being pressed to reach an agreement ahead of Ramadan.
Media reports said the Sfax synagogue’s windows were damaged in the attack, but that firefighters managed to gain control of the blaze before it engulfed the building itself.
Numbering over 100,000 Jews in 1948, the Tunisian Jewish community is now estimated to be less than 1,000.
Sunday marked the second synagogue attack in Tunisia since the start of the war.
האנטישמיות בתוניסיה
היום בבוקר נשרף בית כנסת עתיק בתוניסיה .
כתבתי עשרות פוסטים ומאמרים על האנטישמיות הגואה בתוניסיה אשר הגיעה לשיאה לפני פחות משנה כאשר נהרגו שני יהודים בפיגוע של קיצונים.
ישראל באמצעות מדינות המערב חייבת לעזור ליהודי תוניסה. pic.twitter.com/8Nw1jkjtiw— אדי כהן Edy Cohen (@DREDYCOHEN) February 26, 2024
In October, shortly after the deadly explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital, which was initially blamed on the IDF but later clarified to be the result of an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, pro-Palestine rioters set fire to a historic, though out-of-use, synagogue in the central Tunisian city of Al Hammah.
Videos that circulated widely on social media at the time showed people planting Palestinian flags and chipping away at the synagogue building’s stone walls, all without any police intervention.
The Al Hammah synagogue was not an active site of worship, as no Jews live in the city. However, it is the site of the tomb of 16th-century kabbalist Rabbi Yosef Ma’aravi. The same site was previously damaged during the 2011 Arab Spring protests, which were not about Israel.
In May, the Jewish community of the Tunisian island of Djerba was attacked during Lag B’Omer, when a Tunisian national guardsman killed two Jewish visitors and three Tunisian security officers, during an annual holiday that typically attracts thousands of pilgrims from around the world. The deadly assault shocked the community to its core and plunged it into fear for its future.
Andrew Lapin and Gianluca Pacchiani contributed to this report.
