Monday, January 09, 2012

Tunisians greeting Hamas leader chant "Kill the Jews"

The point about this incident is that it is not really news, in the sense of something exceptional or unexpected, but just a normal, routine event. So it's useful mostly as a reminder of some unpleasant realities. I know that some people think murderous anti-semitism is no big deal, and that harping on it is either boring or a form of sinister propaganda, but I guess I don't entirely agree.

(To pre-empt some of the standard evasions and excuses, when you hear "Yahud" in the video below, that means "Jews", not "Zionists". And yes, when far-right Jewish extremists in Israel chant "Death to Arabs", which happens on occasion, that's also disgusting and alarming.)

This comes via Point of No Return, an excellent website on the historical experience and current diaspora of the Middle Eastern Jewish communities, . For more on that history, including the fact that since 1948 there has been an almost complete ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Arab world (and at least 80% of the historic Jewish community in Iran is gone, too), see here & here.

(In Tunisia, there are still about 1,500 Jews, down from about 100,000 in 1956.)

—Jeff Weintraub

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Point of no return
Information and links about the Middle East's forgotten Jewish refugees

Friday, January 6, 2012
Tunisians greeting Gaza leader cry 'Kill the Jews!'



Cries of 'Out with the Jews!', 'Kill the Jews!' greeted the arrival at Tunis airport of the Hamas chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, StandWithUs (France) reports.

A few hundred people gathered on 5 January at the Tunis-Carthage airport to welcome Haniyeh. As they waited for him they sang antisemitic chants and slogans to the glory of Palestine and the liberation of Gaza. They carried Palestinian flags, the flags of the Ennahda movement, and the black flags of the Salafists.

Ismail Haniyeh was arriving in Tunisia from Turkey for a two-day visit.

Point of No Return commenter Sammish clarifies what the demonstrators were shouting:

Speaker(One person): "Kick the Jews"
Crowd: "Duty" [wajib] (It is a duty)

Speaker: "Expel the Jews"
Crowd: "Duty"

Speaker: "Kill the Jews"
Crowd: "Duty"

Read article in French
Crossposted at CifWatch