SPECIAL ENVOY RICKMAN HEARS FROM GOT THAT TUNISIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 000107 SIPDIS SIPDIS NEA/MAG FOR HARRIS, HOPKINS DRL/SEAS FOR RICKMAN, STEVENS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2016 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KMPI TS SUBJECT: SPECIAL ENVOY RICKMAN HEARS FROM GOT THAT TUNISIA IS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PARADISE, BUT SOME JEWISH CITIZENS DIFFER...PRIVATELY REF: A. 06 TUNIS 1305 ¶B. 06 TUNIS 669 Classified By: Ambassador Robert F. Godec for Reasons 1.4 b & d -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) During a December visit to Tunisia by Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Anti-Semitism Gregg Rickman, GOT interlocutors claimed that there was "absolutely no problem" of anti-Semitism in Tunisia, and that Tunisia's small Jewish community lived in "perfect harmony" with Tunisian Muslims. However, a Tunisian Jew on the island of Djerba, home to the majority of Tunisia's Jewish population, complained that in fact anti-Semitism was present, if subdued, in Tunisia, and flared up in conjunction with negative developments in Israel/Palestine. He, like all Tunisian Jews, praised the GOT's protection of their community, citing it as the major reason that anti-Semitism did not manifest itself in physical violence against the Jewish community. End Summary. ¶2. (U) Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Anti-Semitism Gregg Rickman visited Tunisia from December 11-14. Tunisia has a small community of approximately 1,500 Tunisian Jews. One-third lives in and around Tunis while the remainder lives on the island of Djerba where the Jewish community dates back 2,500 years (Ref A). The GOT allows the Jewish community freedom of worship and pays the salary of the Grand Rabbi. It also provides security for all synagogues and for the Jewish neighborhoods on Djerba. -------------- GOT: "There Are No Problems" -------------- ¶3. (C) In separate meetings on December 12 with the Minister of Religious Affairs, the MFA, and members of Parliament, including Jewish community leader Roger Bismuth, the GOT presented a united front on Tunisia's record of religious tolerance. All interlocutors described the Tunisian model as a shining example of how a minority religious community was supported and protected by government policies. The Minister of Religious Affairs, El Akhzouri, stating a talking point heard throughout the day, said "Tunisian Jews are Tunisians first, Jewish second." Another oft-repeated soundbite heard from GOT officials was: "We shouldn't speak of tolerance, we should speak of acceptance." While recognizing some isolated incidents (Ref B),Tunisian officials denied that anti-Semitism was a significant problem in Tunisia. ¶4. (C) With few exceptions, GOT officials were reluctant to discuss specific issues facing the Jewish community, and denied that any problems existed. Hassine Fantar, a university professor and head of the Ben Ali Chair for Inter-religious Dialogue, did note that he was looking into including references to Tunisian Jews in school textbooks, a subject that to date has not been taught in Tunisian public schools. While all interlocutors were open and supportive of a proposal from Rickman to participate in or host an international conference on religious tolerance, Fantar was particularly engaged by the idea, and promised to be in further contact. NOTE: Fantar has arranged several such conferences in the past. END NOTE. -------------- -------------- Jewish Community in Djerba: "Of Course There Are Problems" -------------- -------------- ¶5. (U) On December 13, Rickman traveled to the southern island of Djerba, home to the vast majority of Jews living in Tunisia. On Djerba, approximately 1,000 Jews live in three separate communities, with their own schools, markets, and synagogues. Although there are some Jews and Muslims living side by side, the majority of Jews on Djerba live in their own neighborhoods. Since the Djerba bombing in April 2002, the GOT has established police checkpoints at all entrances and exits of these areas. ¶6. (C) In Djerba, members of the community, including the community president and the Grand Rabbi of Tunisia, picked up where the GOT interlocutors left off the previous day, extolling the virtuous religious policies of President Ben Ali, and repeating throughout the day that "there are no problems." The President of the Djerba Jewish community, Youssef Uzan, nervously intimated to PolFSN that things were not as perfect as everyone said, but would say nothing more. "You may come and go, but we have to stay here and deal with (the GOT) when you are gone," he said, explaining why he did not want to complain about community problems to a foreign visitor. Throughout the day, Uzan had to constantly report on the delegation's whereabouts to GOT authorities (who were tailing the group everywhere in any case),and had to set an extra place when a local GOT official entered uninvited to a lunch prepared by the Jewish community for the visiting delegation. ¶7. (C) One community member, a jeweler named Khalifa Haddad (protect),however, quietly told poloff "of course we have problems." While emphasizing that the GOT should be commended for its protection of the community, he said it was "ridiculous to claim that everything was perfect." He spoke at length, and with as much caution as if he were disclosing a state secret, of a long-standing dispute, dating back ten years, with the former community president. The president had received, in the name of the community, a significant donation from the widow of a Tunisian Jew. This former president had misappropriated the funds, and when the community tried to install a new president, the matter went to court. According to the Haddad, the court only recognized the former president since only his name was listed on papers establishing the Jewish association. Haddad told poloff that to officially replace him and gain control of the widow's donation, the community would have to create a new association, but that Tunisia's restrictive law on associations prevented this. Haddad said the former president left Djerba, and was currently living in "a million-dollar" apartment in Tunis, where he enjoyed high-level connections in the GOT. ¶8. (C) Haddad also mentioned several periods of tension between the Djerban Jews and their Muslim counterparts. He said that in the early eighties, during a time of increased tension in the Levant, members of the Jewish community were the targets of physical and verbal assault, causing many members of the community to emigrate. He said that this had stopped with Ben Ali's accession to power in 1987, and the protective policies the GOT employed towards the Jewish community. Haddad said that the Muslim community now knew that the GOT had made it clear that any assault on the Jewish community would meet severe retribution, as the GOT benefited greatly from "showing the world" Tunisia's Jewish community. Haddad quickly noted that, absent this tacit threat, as well as the tangible measures of protection, he feared he and his fellow Jews would "again be stoned in the street." While GOT officials emphasized that in Djerba, Muslims and Jews live in harmony side by side, Haddad said that in fact the Jewish community largely keeps to itself. Outside of Djerba, he said, contact with Tunisian Muslims is limited only to business transactions. "Sometimes in the past there has been greater contact, but it always turns out badly. When a Jewish boy wants to marry a Muslim girl, it can create major problems," he said. While claiming to be an optimist, he conceded that that he felt some pressure to emigrate. He recalled that in the eighties as a young man, he had urged his parents to join the thousands of Tunisian Jews that were fleeing, but that now, with six chidren of his own, he found the roles reversed: his roots were firmly in Djerba, and he feared the social upheaval emigration would entail. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶9. (C) The trip to Djerba again revealed the tacit contract between the Jewish community and the GOT, which in turn for support, security and tolerant policies on religion receives the firm allegiance of the community. The GOT in turn trumpets Tunisia's minute Jewish community internationally as a shining example of its moderate and progressive social policies. An additional aspect of this unwritten contract is that the Jewish community must present itself as not just content, but perfectly happy, and suffering from no problems whatsoever. The incredulity of this claim seems to be lost on the GOT, if not on members of the Djerba community. While the survival of Tunisia's Jewish community is overall a success story, this atmosphere of complete dependence on the GOT is another example of the GOT's compulsion to control nearly all aspects of Tunisian society. The GOT claim that everything is perfect with Tunisian Jews echoes GOT-controlled newspapers' fawning headlines about GOT policies, and Haddad's comments about a lack of freedom of association parallel similar complaints from Tunisian civil society activists. The difference is, in a small commmunity, far from the capital city, GOT control is even more dominating, and Jewish community members are tremendously cautious about complaining. End Comment. ¶10. (U) This cable has been cleared by Special Envoy Gregg Rickman. GODEC