European Council President Herman Van Rompuy made his first visit to Tunisia Tuesday to coincide with the country’s celebrations for the second anniversary of the popular uprisings which ousted longtime authoritarian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and led to its democratic transition, the results of which Van Rompuy said in a statement from Tunis had “fully justified the EU’s support of the process of democratic transition”.
Following his meeting with Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, he added that the “EU is ready to expand and strengthen its relations with Tunisia” across political and economic fields, as he emphasised the need for the government to proceed with further democratisation in the country, relating to “judicial independence, strengthening the role of civil society and the role of women, the independence of the media, consolidation of democracy and freedoms and reform of the security sector”.
Of immediate concern, was the imminent deadline for approving the country’s new constitution, he continued, which process will be succeeded by elections as he revealed he had offered Tunisian authorities the monitoring services of the EU’s Electoral Observation Mission to ensure democratic legitimacy.
“Democratic transition is long and often difficult, but it must be irreversible,” continued Van Rompuy, in an echo of his September address to the UN General Assembly in New York, as he announced an increase of financial aid to help “improve the economic performance of the country and fight against poverty”.
Committing the EU’s long-term support to the ongoing democratic transition, he concluded that the “EU is a friend and partner of the new Tunisia”.
Despite the EU’s vocal support for the ruling Ennhada party in Tunisia, after it received 41% of public opinion in the first democratic elections following the fall of Ben Ali, its links to the Muslim Brotherhood and rule to date have not been free of drama, with issues of particular concern being the status of women and religious intolerance.
There have been worrying signs of an emerging anti-Semitism in the North African country, which historically enjoyed the largest Jewish community of its North African neighbours, after the London-based Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi last month reported a Rades Imam preaching anti-Jewish rhetoric to his mosque, railing in a televised address: “O Allah, you know what those accursed Jews have done, the corruption they spread across Earth... Strike them so that there is not one of them left. Allah, make the men and women sterile. Bring down your wrath and your hatred on them.”
Moreover, the head of Ennahada Rashed Ghannouchi has also expressed his desire in the past to reach an understanding with the radical extremist Salafist movement. Previous drafts of the Tunisian constitution have also included anti-Israel clauses, including the proposal to criminalise any attempt to normalise relations with the Jewish State. The suggestion earned international condemnation as well as provoking outcry from NGOs including Human Rights Watch.
Last May, thousands of Salafist Muslims on Kairouan in Central Tunisia, as part of the extremist Islamic movement’s annual assembly. The exclusively male attendees, many of whom were dressed in Afghan military uniform or waving Salafist black flags, marched through the city and raised a banner over the minaret of its mosque, the oldest in Africa.
The demonstration comes in the wake of the rejuvenated Jewish annual pilgrimage to the Tunisian island of Djerba, the continuation of which was in doubt after Israel’s National Security Council expressed fears the country’s activists were planning attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets.
Organisers of the Salafist assembly had instructed marchers to remain “calm” and not to talk to reporters. Many participants however defied their request not to chant slogans, reciting “We are all the children of Osama (bin Laden) and “Jews, Jews, the army of Mohammed is back”.
On a previous visit to Brussels, Jebali was forced to fend off criticism from the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee members of Tunisia’s response to September’s violent Islamist demonstrations, as he insisted “Tunisian people were united in rejecting this behaviour”.
He also sought to alleviate concerns about the perceived Islamicisation of Arab states in light of last year’s popular uprisings, which has also seen an Islamist President elected in Egypt, a fellow former secular state. Committing to pursuing democracy as an antidote to theocracy, he said this government sought to “serve citizens and ensure the equality of all regardless of their origin or religion, including gender equality”.
The Jewish community in Tunisia was largely protected under its treaty with France, as many Tunisian Jews took up French citizenship. Following the WWII-era Vichy administration’s virulently anti-Semitic policies from 1940, however, the climate worsened significantly for the indigenous Jewish population as occupying Nazi German forces deported Tunisian Jews to North African Nazi camps. When Tunisia gained independence in 1956, its Jewish population further dwindled from approximately 100,000 to round 1,500 currently and remains the largest religious minority in the country.