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Monday, April 29, 2013

Several Israelis "discreetly" visited Tunisia during Djerba pilgrimage

This past weekend Jews from throughout the world descended to Djerba, Tunisia for an annual pilgrimage festival to the ancient El Ghriba synagogue there.

Tunisian authorities pulled out all the stops to ensure that the event would not be marred by violence or terror
attacks. Tourism is an important part of the Tunisian economy, and tourists are skittish about visiting in wake of the Islamist government there, so the leaders wanted to be especially careful about this event - because if Jews can visit Tunisia safely, all the more so should everyone else feel safe there.

According to one Egyptian site, about 20 Israelis of Tunisian origin managed to "discreetly "visit during the weekend as well, flying via Rome to Tunisia.

There are a number of groups in Tunisia that oppose "normalization with the Zionist enemy" and they tried to add a paragraph to the new constitution to criminalize any contact with Israel.


By the way, there was also at least one Jewish pilgrimage to Morocco yesterday; my guess is that it was to the grave of Rabbi Amram ben Diwan although there are a number of such pilgrimages on Lag B'Omer in Morocco.