Tunisian court bars trips to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jericho via Amman

A Tunisian court banned two planned tourist flights to Amman, Jordan where the travelers planned to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jericho .

Lawyer Nadia Alorga, on behalf of a group called the "Tunisian Association of Arab Resistance to imperialism and Zionism" known as "Resist," filed a suit to stop the trips, saying that they were a form of "normalization" with Israel.

The Tunisian Constitution under the new "Arab Spring" government does not criminalize "normalization"with Israel, but the lawyer Alorga based on her legal claim on the idea that the constitution provides for the support of the just causes in the world and there is no more just cause than the Palestinian cause.

This is ironic, because the PA leadership is on the record to encourage such visits from Arab and Muslim countries.

This is the first time that the Tunisian judiciary intervened in the political controversy since the rule of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Some Tunisian political activists have been claiming that Zionist activity has been penetrating Tunisia using US funds through "suspicious private associations" operating in the framework of "civil society."