The news from Djerba brings back bad memories and even greater worries. At the end of the Jewish Lag Baomer festival on Tuesday evening, a member of the Tunisian National Guard opened fire on worshippers at the historic La Ghriba synagogue. Thousands of pilgrims stayed on the Tunisian island on the occasion of the Jewish celebration.
Hans-Christian Rößler
Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, based in Madrid.
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Two of them were killed, according to the World Federation of Tunisian Jewry in Israel: a 30-year-old man who has both Tunisian and Israeli citizenship and lives in Israel, and his 42-year-old cousin, a French-Jewish businessman living in France.
The investigation into the motives of this "cowardly aggression" is still ongoing, the Tunisian Interior Ministry said on Wednesday, without classifying the act as a terrorist attack so far. But jihadists had already set their sights on the most important Jewish pilgrimage site in North Africa. In the spring of 2002, Al Qaeda carried out the most devastating terrorist attack in the history of the small country: 19 holidaymakers were killed, 14 of them from Germany.
On Wednesday, it was initially only known that the attacker had first killed a colleague at a naval base and snatched his ammunition from him. Then he drove to the heavily guarded synagogue and began shooting there. According to authorities, he killed another police officer and injured nine people before police shot him dead. According to unconfirmed reports, another person died from their injuries.
After the latest act of violence, the anxious question immediately arose again as to whether terror would return to Tunisia after it had remained quiet since 2019. At that time, two suicide bombings were carried out in the capital Tunis. Previously, it had taken years for tourists to return to Tunisian beaches. In June 2015, a Tunisian terrorist shot dead 38 holidaymakers in the seaside resort of Sousse. Earlier, in March 2015, three terrorists killed 22 people at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis.
Tourism industry had just recovered
As a result, foreign visitors avoided the country, for which tourism is essential for survival as the largest foreign exchange earner. In recent years, the security situation in the North African country has stabilized. Compared to other countries in the region, a particularly large number of Tunisians joined the terrorist militia "Islamic State" and have since returned to a large extent.
The tourism industry had only just recovered from the years of the pandemic. If the security situation were to deteriorate again, it would be fatal for the economy, which has been going through a severe crisis for years and is struggling with a severe drought. More and more Tunisians are turning their backs on their country. Thousands have already boarded the boats this year and are looking for a better life in Europe.
Unlike most Arab states, Tunisia still has a small Jewish community with about 1500 members, some of whom were also ministers. The centuries-old synagogue La Ghriba is the Jewish center of Tunisia and at the same time the most important sanctuary of the Jews in the region. Every year, the pilgrimage to the Lag Baomer festival is the highlight of Jewish life in Tunisia, which has now been able to take place again without restrictions after the pandemic. Thousands of Jews traditionally make a pilgrimage to the synagogue every spring, including hundreds of Israelis. Many tourists who spend their holidays on the Mediterranean island also visit the historic building all year round.