Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Tunisia’s new president: Any ties with Israel ‘high treason’

Kais Saied: Jews with passports other than Israeli ones welcome to visit Tunisia’s synagogues • No “dealings with Zionists.”

Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed. Sept. 14, 2019. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed. Sept. 14, 2019. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Tunisia’s new president said late last week that the relationship with Israel equals “high treason.”

“ ‘Normalization’ is the wrong word to use,” said Kais Saied in response to a question in the final televised presidential debate about the warming of relations between the Jewish state and the Arab and Muslim world. “We should be talking about high treason.”

Saied defeated rival Nabil Karoui with 77% of the votes in Sunday’s election.

While Saied said that Jews with passports other than Israeli ones were welcome to visit Tunisia’s synagogues, there should be no “dealings with Zionists.”

The New York City Police Department told JNS that the suspect is being charged with “attempted murder as a hate crime, attempted murder, assault as a hate crime, two counts of assault and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.”
The teacher alleged Portland Public Schools allowed Palestinian flags and anti-Israel displays while administrators told him that displaying “an Israeli flag or related symbols would be too disruptive.”
The Islamic Republic’s foreign minister threatened on Friday to kill a U.S. soldier for every Iranian killed in the war, as Trump speculated that regime leaders might “cry uncle” or “go into a cave and hide.”
Art historian Jacob Wisse told JNS that he is concerned “when museums, which I value for the rigor, depth and richness of their curatorial voice, fall back, lazily, on untruths.”
“Shame on Mamdani and those who continue to parade this dangerous rhetoric,” Daniel S. Mariaschin of B’nai B’rith International told JNS.
“Every community deserves a seat at the table when healthcare policy is being shaped,” Eveline Shekhman, CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association, told JNS.