In Tunis
“Macron assassin”, “Once a colonist, always a colonist”, “France, you are no longer welcome”, “Where is humanity?”, “Genocide in progress, no one flinches!” could we read on the signs or on the walls of the French Institute of Tunis Wednesday afternoon. Several thousand people demonstrated in the center of the Tunisian capital and in other provincial towns on Tuesday evening and Wednesday. A rally to express support for Palestine, and anger after the deadly shooting at a hospital in the Palestinian city of Gaza which left hundreds dead.
Resolutely pro-Palestinian, Tunisians have (re)found here a cause that unites them all. MPs subservient to the regime of Kaïs Saïed (who took full powers in July 2021), opponents and the average population were in the streets on Wednesday, with a crowd that had not been seen for years. On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, during a meeting of the National Security Council, Kaïs Saïed denounced “an international silence” on the “genocides” perpetrated by the Israeli army against the Palestinians, according to him. Tunisia, which hosted Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1982 to 1994, has always supported the Palestinian cause. From October 9, and at the request of President Kaïs Saïed, Tunisian schools raised the Palestinian flag. A bill is currently under study to criminalize the normalization of relations with Israel, which has no diplomatic representation in the country.
In front of the steps of the municipal theater, on Avenue Bourguiba, one of the largest arteries in the capital, Choukrane, a 23-year-old student at the Faculty of Medicine in Tunis, brandishes a sign reading “Let us not forgive, Let’s not forget, let’s resist!” If she came this Wednesday – she did not participate in the first demonstration which had already brought together a few thousand people on October 12 – it is because of the bombing of the Ahli Arab hospital: “Now they are attacking the civilians, children, the injured. They deny the most basic rights. Attacking a hospital is more than crossing a red line!” Beside him, Ahmed, from the same year, continues: “With an act like this, they can’t be human.”
Israel’s version – supported by the American president – which attributes the strike to a failed rocket attack by the Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, is not convincing. At best, it makes you laugh. At worst, it fuels anger. “Everyone believes Israel which cries because of the Palestinians. But no one listens to the Palestinians who have been crying for decades because of the Israeli community – I refuse to speak of a state – which is colonizing another country. The people of Europe do not see reality, because the media only present Israel’s point of view,” says a young person, “I no longer trust the French. »
As for the October 7 attack by Hamas, the protesters understand: “Hamas did not attack first! It is a reaction to years of humiliation and murder. Today, young Palestinians are fighting for their land, they are fighting the terror that Israel has been sowing for years!” 100 meters away, another crowd gathers in front of the barriers. The French embassy is a few steps away, protected by police. Here, the cries are aimed at France and its role in the conflict. “I am angry, angry with this Macron dog,” begins Hassan, an unemployed 32-year-old. He shot the hospital in Gaza! Don’t tell me it’s not him! Biden, Macron and Netanyahu are allies. What Netanyahu is doing is supported by Biden and Macron.” For Hassan, the French ambassador must leave her country, as well as the entire diplomatic representation.
What was particularly shocking was the rejection, Monday evening, of a draft UN resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. France, with the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, voted against, on the grounds that the text did not designate the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. “If France had stood up against Palestine, this massacre could never have happened,” thinks Meriam, 18, who refers to a graffiti in front of the French Institute: “It says: La France , country of the rights of CERTAIN men. I have nothing else to add.” On Monday, young people who had spray painted the wall of the French Institute were briefly arrested. By Tuesday morning, the wall had been repainted white. He was tagged again in the evening of the same day. The French embassy alerted its nationals on Wednesday, indicating that the security of French interests in Tunisia had been strengthened.
