The project prohibits “the recognition of the Zionist entity or the establishment of direct or indirect links” with it.
Tunisia’s parliament has begun debating a bill that would criminalize any normalization of ties with Israel as bombing on Gaza intensifies and the death toll surpasses 9,000.
The draft, on which deliberations began Thursday, defines “normalization” as “the recognition of the Zionist entity or the establishment of direct or indirect links” with it, a crime that would be qualified as “high treason.”
Anyone found guilty of the “crime of normalization” risks a sentence of six to ten years in prison and a fine of 10,000 to 100,000 dinars ($3,155 to $31,553), the text specifies. Repeat offenders could be sentenced to life in prison.
Additionally, the bill would prohibit any interaction between Tunisians and Israelis, including during “events, demonstrations, meetings, exhibitions and competitions” in any context, whether “political, economic, scientific, cultural, artistic or sporting.” » in territory held or occupied by Israel.
“Total agreement”
The proposal to ban ties with Israel appears very popular in parliament and among the public, lawmakers said.
“There is total agreement between the president, the parliament and public opinion” on this issue, declared the president of the Parliament, Brahim Bouderbala, to the deputies at the opening of the session.
“We firmly believe that Palestine must be liberated from the river to the sea… and that a Palestinian state must be established with holy Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
The legislation was drafted in late October by a group of lawmakers who support President Kais Saied, an independent law professor elected in 2019.
Saied consolidated his power and cracked down on his opponents after launching a power grab in 2021 that ousted the old parliament and prime minister. The new Tunisian Parliament was elected in January and has 160 deputies.
Saied has been a staunch defender of the Palestinian cause since entering the political scene, saying it is “Tunisia’s duty to stand alongside the Palestinian people” and that anyone who normalizes ties with Israel is a “traitor.” .
His feelings appear to be shared by a large part of Tunisians, who have taken to the streets in their thousands to express their support for the Palestinians and denounce Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war.
More than 9,000 Palestinians, including more than 3,600 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel began shelling the enclave in response to Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel on October 7. Hamas attacks killed 1,400 people, most of them civilians, Israeli authorities said.
Tunisia has a small Jewish community, numbering around 1,000 people, most of whom live in closed neighborhoods on the southern island of Djerba.
Their oldest synagogue, El Ghriba, is the site of an annual Jewish pilgrimage that draws thousands of people from around the world to the island each May.
This year, Tunisian naval guards attacked the holy site during the pilgrimage, firing bullets outside the synagogue, killing five people, including two Jewish worshipers.
A symbol of Tunisian Jewish heritage was targeted again on October 17 when a crowd of protesters enraged by the bloodshed in Gaza set fire to an empty Jewish synagogue that houses the shrine of a 16th-century rabbi in the town of El Hamma, in the governorate of Gabès.