Just a handful of pilgrims attended the first day of the Jewish pilgrimage at Djerba’s El Ghriba Synagogue in Tunisia, where ceremonies were kept to a minimum due to security concerns fueled by the Gaza conflict. Normally, thousands of pilgrims worldwide, especially from Europe and the United States, flock to Ghriba, Africa’s oldest synagogue, for three days of festivities marked by several processions beginning this year May 24. According to legend, the temple's construction dates back to the escape of Jewish religious dignitaries from Jerusalem after the destruction of Solomon’s Temple by Babylonian armies in 586 BC.“The international situation does not allow us to organize a pilgrimage of such importance,” explained René Trabelsi, one of the event’s organizers, referring to the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.This year, the ceremonies were limited to religious rituals (prayers and candle lighting) without the festive procession behind the large Menorah, a Jewish candelabrum mounted on wheels and decorated with colorful fabrics. According to Trabelsi, “between 30 and 50 pilgrims are expected May 27, compared to 6,000 to 7,000 normally.” However, “the most important thing is that we are here” to convey “the message that Djerba is a land of peace and tolerance,” he said.
Last year a guard killed four people at the pilgrimage.
The public celebration was canceled this year not by the Jewish community, as the article implies, but by the government of Tunisiathe government of Tunisia itself,
This occurred after a Tunisian group that purports to be pro-Palestinian threatened to attack any "Zionist" who arrives, or any Tunisian Jew who helps bring in any "Zionists."
After the decision, one writer was happy that Tunisian Jews could not celebrate. "Because we are an Arab Muslim people, we do not accept that the Jews rejoice over our precious land while they kill our people in Palestine, and the Zionists must understand that things have limits, and that the Islamic and Arab peoples boil like a pot boiling over a quiet fire..."
This is the pattern we are seeing worldwide. Jewish events are blocked, ostensibly because of "security considerations," but the security issue isn't from the Jews but from the antisemites who threaten the Jews. Then the antisemites celebrate their successful banning of Jews.
These threats are a form of terrorism. Terrorism, after all, is the use of fear for political purposes, to force people to act in certain ways to avoid potential injury or death. And in Tunisia, as elsewhere, the threats accomplish what they set out to do: to limit the human rights of Jews.
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