Kais Saied said the attack against the Ghriba synagogue in Djerba ”was not anti-Semitic” and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

 

Tunisian President Kais Saied has compared the Jewish state to Nazi Germany, days after after a gunman killed five people in an attack on the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba during an annual pilgrimage. Among the dead were two Jewish cousins, Aviel Haddad, 30, and Benjamin Haddad, 43, and three security guards.

“While Tunisians protected Jews during the Holocaust, today elderly, women and children are being bombed in Gaza,” Saied said, according to a translation that Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, posted on Twitter.

Goldschmidt called on European governments to condemn Saied’s statement, which he said implies “that the Jews of Tunisia are responsible for the bombing of Gaza.”

“Through such wanton remarks, the president continues to incite further hatred and even attacks against the country’s Jewish community, heaven forbid,” Goldschmidt said.

The Tunisian president made other controversial statements as he said last Saturday that “the attack against the synagogue was not anti-Semitic, according to the Tunisian newspaper La Presse.

He called those who consider the attack anti-Semitic “distorters of history determined to distort it, falsify the facts and spread untruths,” accusing them of “conspiring against the state and endangering social peace.  Kais Saied also said that those who support this thesis “do not hesitate to make false accusations of anti-Semitism while they turn a deaf ear when it comes to addressing the plight of Palestinians who are dying every day.’’

In the meantime, President Saïed invited the head of the country’s Jewish community to a meeting, according to a report by Israeli public channel Kan. The report said  Said was going to host Tunisia’s Chief Rabbi Haïm in the premises assigned to the presidency.

“While Tunisians protected Jews during the Holocaust, today elderly, women and children are being bombed in Gaza,” Saied said, according to a translation that Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, posted on Twitter.

Goldschmidt called on European governments to condemn Saied’s statement, which he said implies “that the Jews of Tunisia are responsible for the bombing of Gaza.”

“Through such wanton remarks, the president continues to incite further hatred and even attacks against the country’s Jewish community, heaven forbid,” Goldschmidt said.

The Tunisian president made other cotroversial statements as he said last Saturday that “the attack against the synagogue was not anti-Semitic, according to the Tunisian newspaper La Presse.

He called those who consider the attack anti-Semitic “distorters of history determined to distort it, falsify the facts and spread untruths,” accusing them of “conspiring against the state and endangering social peace.  Kais Saied also said that those who support this thesis “do not hesitate to make false accusations of anti-Semitism while they turn a deaf ear when it comes to addressing the plight of Palestinians who are dying every day.’’

In the meantime, President Saïed invited the head of the country’s Jewish community to a meeting, according to a report by Israeli public channel Kan. The report said  Said was going to host Tunisia’s Chief Rabbi Haïm in the premises assigned to the presidency.