Showing posts with label Tunisia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tunisia. Show all posts
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Muslim Attack on Tunis Synagogue
In a shocking, horrible video (here) posted to facebook, hordes of Western, modern-looking Muslims attack the Great Synagogue of Tunis to the chants of "Allahua Akbar!" and the genocial Islamic death chant:
"Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad saya'ud," which means "Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Mohammed is returning." This cry relates to an event in the seventh century when Muslims massacred and expelled Jews from the town of Khaybar, in modern-day Arabia.
News of a prior attack on this synagogue had been widely disputed, but one thing is certain: the media may be painting these violent uprisings as darling and quaint, but they are anything but. Islamic supremacism is being sold to an unwitting public.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Grounds for Optimism in Tunisia
There are grounds for optimism over Tunisia (which I guess can now be called 'last week's revolution') in this fascinating article in Sunday's Washington Post by Robert Satloff.
In writing a book and narrating a film on what happened in Arab lands during the Holocaust, I have studied Tunisia closely over the past decade. Only 90 miles from the southern tip of Italy, this small North African country was the sole Arab state to suffer a full-fledged German occupation during World War II. I have visited the places where SS officers rounded up Jews and sent them to concentration camps.
Yet Tunisia was also where I found the most stories of Arabs protecting Jews during the war. As in Europe, these Muslim rescuers were ordinary people performing extraordinary acts - like the Tunis bathhouse owner who hid a Jewish man in his hammam or the Mahdia country squire who sheltered two dozen Jews on his farm. This moment in Tunisian history - which had a much happier ending for Jews than did events on the other side of the Mediterranean - gives hope that the current chaos will end reasonably positively.
Tunisia's largely homogenous population has blended a 1,400-year-old Sunni Arab identity with an organic, deeply embedded connection to Europe. Its capital once rivaled Beirut and Alexandria as the most cosmopolitan Arab city, with large communities of Italians, French, British and Maltese injecting a heady mix of energy and ideas into the local culture.
One result is that the Tunisian people have historically sought engagement with the world and rejected extreme ideologies, whether fascist, Nasserist or Islamist. This openness has enabled Tunisia to escape the self-induced savagery and backwardness, respectively, of neighboring Algeria and Libya. Tunisia has its share of radicals, many of whom have recently made their way to the infantry of al-Qaeda and other movements, and the threat of religious extremism is not fantasy, as some suggest. But the local Islamist movement, an-Nahda, is not poised to step in.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Holocaust, Politics, Robert Satloff, Tunisia, World Politics
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:05 AM
You might like:
* Egypt Shows How Easily Internet Can Be Silenced (CNBC)
* ElBaradei arrested in Egypt? :: Israel Matzav (this site)
* Great news: Bedouin smugglers control Egyptian towns closest to Gaza (this site)
* Does democracy equal Islamism in the Arab world? :: Israel Matzav (this site)
(Selected for you by our sponsor )
1 Comments:
At 6:28 AM, Blogger NormanF said...
Tunisia is a secularized and almost European Arab country. It could be a democracy. But the lessons of its Jasmine Revolution are not so easily transferable to the rest of the Arab World. Its Islamist movement is weak and almost non-existent. That is not case in other Arab countries. Democracy elsewhere would probably bring Islamists to power. No more democracy.
Tunisia then, is the exception that proves the rule. The Arab World is not ready for democracy in our lifetime.
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Creative-i : Tunisia Newslinks for 30 January, 2011
30 January, 2011 — creative-i.info Tunisia's leading Islamist to return from exile Reuters By Tom Perry TUNIS (Reuters) – A leading Tunisian Islamist was due to return from 22 years in exile on Sunday in one of the most powerful symbols ...
posted by The Editor @ 2:17 PM
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About Me
Name: Carl in Jerusalem
Location: Jerusalem, Israel
In writing a book and narrating a film on what happened in Arab lands during the Holocaust, I have studied Tunisia closely over the past decade. Only 90 miles from the southern tip of Italy, this small North African country was the sole Arab state to suffer a full-fledged German occupation during World War II. I have visited the places where SS officers rounded up Jews and sent them to concentration camps.
Yet Tunisia was also where I found the most stories of Arabs protecting Jews during the war. As in Europe, these Muslim rescuers were ordinary people performing extraordinary acts - like the Tunis bathhouse owner who hid a Jewish man in his hammam or the Mahdia country squire who sheltered two dozen Jews on his farm. This moment in Tunisian history - which had a much happier ending for Jews than did events on the other side of the Mediterranean - gives hope that the current chaos will end reasonably positively.
Tunisia's largely homogenous population has blended a 1,400-year-old Sunni Arab identity with an organic, deeply embedded connection to Europe. Its capital once rivaled Beirut and Alexandria as the most cosmopolitan Arab city, with large communities of Italians, French, British and Maltese injecting a heady mix of energy and ideas into the local culture.
One result is that the Tunisian people have historically sought engagement with the world and rejected extreme ideologies, whether fascist, Nasserist or Islamist. This openness has enabled Tunisia to escape the self-induced savagery and backwardness, respectively, of neighboring Algeria and Libya. Tunisia has its share of radicals, many of whom have recently made their way to the infantry of al-Qaeda and other movements, and the threat of religious extremism is not fantasy, as some suggest. But the local Islamist movement, an-Nahda, is not poised to step in.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Holocaust, Politics, Robert Satloff, Tunisia, World Politics
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:05 AM
You might like:
* Egypt Shows How Easily Internet Can Be Silenced (CNBC)
* ElBaradei arrested in Egypt? :: Israel Matzav (this site)
* Great news: Bedouin smugglers control Egyptian towns closest to Gaza (this site)
* Does democracy equal Islamism in the Arab world? :: Israel Matzav (this site)
(Selected for you by our sponsor )
1 Comments:
At 6:28 AM, Blogger NormanF said...
Tunisia is a secularized and almost European Arab country. It could be a democracy. But the lessons of its Jasmine Revolution are not so easily transferable to the rest of the Arab World. Its Islamist movement is weak and almost non-existent. That is not case in other Arab countries. Democracy elsewhere would probably bring Islamists to power. No more democracy.
Tunisia then, is the exception that proves the rule. The Arab World is not ready for democracy in our lifetime.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Creative-i : Tunisia Newslinks for 30 January, 2011
30 January, 2011 — creative-i.info Tunisia's leading Islamist to return from exile Reuters By Tom Perry TUNIS (Reuters) – A leading Tunisian Islamist was due to return from 22 years in exile on Sunday in one of the most powerful symbols ...
posted by The Editor @ 2:17 PM
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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Iran Sees Rise of Hard-Liners in Arab Lands
The NY Times
TEHRAN — Hopeful that the protests sweeping Arab lands may create an opening for hard-line Islamic forces, conservatives in Iran are taking deep satisfaction in the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, where secular leaders have faced large-scale uprisings.
While the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confronted its own popular uprising two years ago — and successfully suppressed it — conservatives in Iran said they saw little similarity between those events and the Arab revolts, and instead likened the recent upheavals to Iran’s own 1979 Islamic revolution.
“In my opinion, the Islamic Republic of Iran should see these events without exception in a positive light,” said Mohammad-Javad Larijani, secretary general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights and one of the most outspoken figures among Iran’s traditional conservatives.
He made it clear that he hoped the “anti-Islamic” government of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in Tunisia, would be replaced by a “people’s government,” meaning one in which conservative Islamic forces would gain the upper hand, as they did when Iranian people overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, establishing a quasi theocracy.
On the opposite side are the United States and France, he said, who are “doing everything they can to ride the wave and prevent the people from establishing the regime that they desire.”
“I am more optimistic about Egypt,” Mr. Larijani said in comments published Friday on the Web site Khabar Online, which is closely linked to his brother, Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament.
“There, Muslims are more active in political agitation and, God willing, they will establish the regime that they want,” Mohammad-Javad Larijani said.
Some here have even echoed the pan-Islamic rhetoric of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
“Today, as a result of the gifts of the Islamic revolution in Iran, freedom-loving Islamic people’s such as the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt and nearby Arab countries are standing up to their oppressive governments,” said a leading hard-line cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is believed to have influence with President Ahmadinejad.
In comments published Friday on the Web site of the semiofficial news agency ISNA, Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, who favors a political system in which elections merely endorse “divinely chosen” clerical leaders, congratulated the people of Tunisia and Egypt, stating that they had acted “based on the principles” of Iran’s Islamic revolution.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Iran’s “green” opposition movement, which spearheaded large street protests here two years ago after the disputed re-election of Mr. Ahmadinejad, have so far issued no statement on the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.
While foreign commentators have tried to draw comparisons and assess differences between the overthrow of Mr. Ben Ali’s government in Tunisia, many here have found such comparisons strained and unconvincing.
“No one can compare Arab and Iranian society with each other,” said a former reformist journalist who asked not to be identified to avoid drawing the attention of Iran’s security services.
TEHRAN — Hopeful that the protests sweeping Arab lands may create an opening for hard-line Islamic forces, conservatives in Iran are taking deep satisfaction in the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, where secular leaders have faced large-scale uprisings.
While the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confronted its own popular uprising two years ago — and successfully suppressed it — conservatives in Iran said they saw little similarity between those events and the Arab revolts, and instead likened the recent upheavals to Iran’s own 1979 Islamic revolution.
“In my opinion, the Islamic Republic of Iran should see these events without exception in a positive light,” said Mohammad-Javad Larijani, secretary general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights and one of the most outspoken figures among Iran’s traditional conservatives.
He made it clear that he hoped the “anti-Islamic” government of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in Tunisia, would be replaced by a “people’s government,” meaning one in which conservative Islamic forces would gain the upper hand, as they did when Iranian people overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, establishing a quasi theocracy.
On the opposite side are the United States and France, he said, who are “doing everything they can to ride the wave and prevent the people from establishing the regime that they desire.”
“I am more optimistic about Egypt,” Mr. Larijani said in comments published Friday on the Web site Khabar Online, which is closely linked to his brother, Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament.
“There, Muslims are more active in political agitation and, God willing, they will establish the regime that they want,” Mohammad-Javad Larijani said.
Some here have even echoed the pan-Islamic rhetoric of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
“Today, as a result of the gifts of the Islamic revolution in Iran, freedom-loving Islamic people’s such as the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt and nearby Arab countries are standing up to their oppressive governments,” said a leading hard-line cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is believed to have influence with President Ahmadinejad.
In comments published Friday on the Web site of the semiofficial news agency ISNA, Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, who favors a political system in which elections merely endorse “divinely chosen” clerical leaders, congratulated the people of Tunisia and Egypt, stating that they had acted “based on the principles” of Iran’s Islamic revolution.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Iran’s “green” opposition movement, which spearheaded large street protests here two years ago after the disputed re-election of Mr. Ahmadinejad, have so far issued no statement on the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.
While foreign commentators have tried to draw comparisons and assess differences between the overthrow of Mr. Ben Ali’s government in Tunisia, many here have found such comparisons strained and unconvincing.
“No one can compare Arab and Iranian society with each other,” said a former reformist journalist who asked not to be identified to avoid drawing the attention of Iran’s security services.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tunisia: Fall of Secular Parties Pave Way 4 Islamic Ones
Fall of secular regime in Tunisia paves way for Islamic parties Jihadwatch
REUTERS - For years they were jailed or exiled. They were excluded from elections, banned from politics, and played no visible role in Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution. But in the brave new world of multi-party politics, moderate Islamists could attract more followers than their secular rivals like to admit.
And the downfall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's police state may leave Tunisia open to infiltration by extremists from neighbouring Algeria, where war between authorities and Islamists has killed 200,000 people in the last two decades.
"The Islamist movement was the most oppressed of all the opposition movements under Ben Ali. Its followers are also much greater in number than those of the secular opposition," said Salah Jourchi, a Tunisian expert on Islamic movements.
'Its effect could be large'
Secularism has been strictly enforced in Tunisia since before its independence from France in 1956. Habib Bourguiba, the independence leader and long-time president, was a nationalist who considered Islam a threat to the state.
Indeed, in 1987, when Ben Ali pushed aside Bourguiba, he briefly released Islamists from jail and allowed them to run in the 1989 elections. The results surprised and worried Ben Ali.
Ennahda, or Renaissance, Tunisia's largest Islamist movement, officially won 17 percent of the vote, coming second to the ruling party.
Jourchi said there was widespread electoral fraud and the real figure could have been closer to 30-35 percent. That compared with a combined total of three percent for all the secular opposition parties that ran in the same elections.
Ben Ali reversed his policy, banned Ennahda, jailed its followers and cracked down harshly on anyone showing any tendency towards Islamism. Ennahda's leader Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi was exiled to London the same year.
Ennahda's renaissance?
Ghannouchi, who declared his desire to return to Tunisia soon after Ben Ali's ouster, has yet to set a date.
But now that Tunisia's interim government has agreed an amnesty law that allows banned parties and frees political prisoners, Ghannouchi could return any day.
Husain Jazeery, an Ennahda spokesman exiled in Paris, said the movement would take part in parliamentary elections expected to be held in the next six months but would field no candidate for the presidency because "we do not want to rule the country".
"We are a party that does not want to rule but wants to take part alongside all the other groups and to do so responsibly," he said by telephone.
"Any exclusion of Ennahda would be a return to the old regime and that would be impossible in the current situation ... regardless of internal or external pressures."
Despite the state's crackdown on Ennahda, the movement is considered moderate and could draw widespread support....
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REUTERS - For years they were jailed or exiled. They were excluded from elections, banned from politics, and played no visible role in Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution. But in the brave new world of multi-party politics, moderate Islamists could attract more followers than their secular rivals like to admit.
And the downfall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's police state may leave Tunisia open to infiltration by extremists from neighbouring Algeria, where war between authorities and Islamists has killed 200,000 people in the last two decades.
"The Islamist movement was the most oppressed of all the opposition movements under Ben Ali. Its followers are also much greater in number than those of the secular opposition," said Salah Jourchi, a Tunisian expert on Islamic movements.
'Its effect could be large'
Secularism has been strictly enforced in Tunisia since before its independence from France in 1956. Habib Bourguiba, the independence leader and long-time president, was a nationalist who considered Islam a threat to the state.
Indeed, in 1987, when Ben Ali pushed aside Bourguiba, he briefly released Islamists from jail and allowed them to run in the 1989 elections. The results surprised and worried Ben Ali.
Ennahda, or Renaissance, Tunisia's largest Islamist movement, officially won 17 percent of the vote, coming second to the ruling party.
Jourchi said there was widespread electoral fraud and the real figure could have been closer to 30-35 percent. That compared with a combined total of three percent for all the secular opposition parties that ran in the same elections.
Ben Ali reversed his policy, banned Ennahda, jailed its followers and cracked down harshly on anyone showing any tendency towards Islamism. Ennahda's leader Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi was exiled to London the same year.
Ennahda's renaissance?
Ghannouchi, who declared his desire to return to Tunisia soon after Ben Ali's ouster, has yet to set a date.
But now that Tunisia's interim government has agreed an amnesty law that allows banned parties and frees political prisoners, Ghannouchi could return any day.
Husain Jazeery, an Ennahda spokesman exiled in Paris, said the movement would take part in parliamentary elections expected to be held in the next six months but would field no candidate for the presidency because "we do not want to rule the country".
"We are a party that does not want to rule but wants to take part alongside all the other groups and to do so responsibly," he said by telephone.
"Any exclusion of Ennahda would be a return to the old regime and that would be impossible in the current situation ... regardless of internal or external pressures."
Despite the state's crackdown on Ennahda, the movement is considered moderate and could draw widespread support....
[Like on Facebook]
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Does Democracy Mean Islam in Arab Nations?
Before we go jumping for joy over last weekend's coup in Tunisia, perhaps we ought to consider the likely outcome of democratic elections in that country and in others in North Africa and across the Arab and Muslim worlds.
The announcement that Rachid Ghannouchi, Tunisia’s leading Islamist agitator, is to return home from exile in (where else?) London certainly should raise alarm bells in some quarters. Ghannouchi fled into exile after the Tunisians claimed he was linked to plots to blow up tourist hotels in Tunisia – claims, it should be said, Ghannouchi has always denied. But his links to militant Islamist groups throughout North Africa, such as the Sudanese government which is currently the subject of war crimes charges at the Hague, are well-document and give you some idea of which way Tunisia post-Ben Ali could go if the Tunisians do not take care.
And it is a pattern that could be replicated throughout the Maghreb. In Libya Islamist militants pose the most serious threat to the Gaddafi clan’s survival, while in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood have made no secret of their desire to establish an Islamic theocracy to replace the current secular regime. It was not so long ago that Muslim militants in Algeria were busily blowing up the Paris metro.
In the war against Islamist terror North Africa is already an area that causes Western intelligence agencies serious concern. And the threat to Western interests would rise considerably if Islamist regimes replace the secular dynasties that have pursued pro-Western policies, but in doing so have woefully failed their people.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but it's clearly not business as usual.
Labels: democracy, Islamic indoctrination, Tunisia
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:25 PM
The announcement that Rachid Ghannouchi, Tunisia’s leading Islamist agitator, is to return home from exile in (where else?) London certainly should raise alarm bells in some quarters. Ghannouchi fled into exile after the Tunisians claimed he was linked to plots to blow up tourist hotels in Tunisia – claims, it should be said, Ghannouchi has always denied. But his links to militant Islamist groups throughout North Africa, such as the Sudanese government which is currently the subject of war crimes charges at the Hague, are well-document and give you some idea of which way Tunisia post-Ben Ali could go if the Tunisians do not take care.
And it is a pattern that could be replicated throughout the Maghreb. In Libya Islamist militants pose the most serious threat to the Gaddafi clan’s survival, while in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood have made no secret of their desire to establish an Islamic theocracy to replace the current secular regime. It was not so long ago that Muslim militants in Algeria were busily blowing up the Paris metro.
In the war against Islamist terror North Africa is already an area that causes Western intelligence agencies serious concern. And the threat to Western interests would rise considerably if Islamist regimes replace the secular dynasties that have pursued pro-Western policies, but in doing so have woefully failed their people.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but it's clearly not business as usual.
Labels: democracy, Islamic indoctrination, Tunisia
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:25 PM
The Next Domino? Egypt?
Investors seem to be betting on Hosni Mubarak as the next corrupt Arab ruler to go.
Panicked by the events in Tunisia, foreign investors in the Egyptian bourse (stock exchange) have been liquidating their positions and expatriating their capital out of Egypt quickly. Some stocks have lost 50% of their value. As a whole, the losses sustained by the Egyptian bourse in the last few days are estimated at $4.3 billion. Egyptian institutions and funds have stepped in to stabilize the bourse.
Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, January 19, 2011
Hmmm.
Labels: Egyptian exodus, Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:43 AM
Panicked by the events in Tunisia, foreign investors in the Egyptian bourse (stock exchange) have been liquidating their positions and expatriating their capital out of Egypt quickly. Some stocks have lost 50% of their value. As a whole, the losses sustained by the Egyptian bourse in the last few days are estimated at $4.3 billion. Egyptian institutions and funds have stepped in to stabilize the bourse.
Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, January 19, 2011
Hmmm.
Labels: Egyptian exodus, Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:43 AM
Friday, January 14, 2011
Tunesia, Sousse city shut down 12/1/2011
Arab world starting to overthrow its tyrannies?
Is the Arab world finally starting to overthrow its autocratic rulers? What will the consequences be if it does? We may start to get answers to those questions very soon. There have been mass demonstrations and riots this week over food prices in Algeria, and especially in Tunisia. I have some video from Tunisia that you might be interested in watching. Unlike Iran a year and a half ago.
#sidibouzid Today : Demonstrators in Sfax singing the n ...
Will Arab World tyrannies be overthrown?
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Human Rights Besiege Tunisian Presidential Palace
Tunisia blocked access to both popular video-sharing websites, Youtube and Dailymotion, in order to prevent Tunisian netizens from watching video content featuring testimonies from former political prisoners and human rights activists. However, and as shown in this example, Tunisian cyberactivists from Nawaat.org are successful enough in besieging Carthage presidential palace, on Google Earth, with tens of human rights videos.
And you can explore more human rights videos when flying over other Tunisian regions and cities Google like Bizerte, Kef, etc.
Please, feel free to download this Google Earth kmz file (Keyhole Markup Zip) which will start Google Earth and fly you to Carthage Presidential palace.
Human Rights Videos Besiege the Tunisian Presidential Palace
Sami Ben Gharbia, Global Voices Advocacy
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tunisia Denies Human Rights to Jailed Blogger
Published by , Global Voices Advocacy
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In the last few weeks, Slim Boukhdhir, the 39-year old imprisoned blogger and journalist, is reported to have been subjected to an unusual level of harassment by prison authorities in the Sfax prison where he is serving the one-year sentence imposed by a Tunisian court on December 4th, 2007. Boukdhir was charged with “aggression against a public employee” and “affront to public decency”.
His wife, Dalenda Boukhdhir, told Global Voices that the prison authorities placed Slim in “dry cell” for three days, from 20-23 March, 2008, turning off the water in his cell so he couldn’t wash. These measures have further aggravated the already serious health condition of her husband, she said. Mme Boukdhir has complained to the Red Cross about prison conditions and is hoping the Red Cross staff will visit Slim at the prison.
Slim Boukhdhir has staged several hunger strikes to protest the inhumane conditions under which he is being detained. His most recent hunger strike was called off on February 2, 2008, on the urging of his wife.
“Preventing a prisoner from seeing his family or having a clean cell is a flagrant violation of human rights,” Reporters Without Borders has said, “the injustice of sentencing this journalist to a year in prison is being compounded by his conditions of detention and staging a hunger strike has become his only way of making himself heard.”
We include below an alert from Luiza Toscane, a Human right activist, posted on the forum section of the Tunisian website Nawaat. (The English translation was done by Jennifer Brea, Global Voices’ French Language editor):
Lors de la visite qu’elle a rendu jeudi 13 mars à son mari, Slim Boukhdhir, journaliste incarcéré à la prison de Sfax, Dalenda Boukhdhir a pu constater que l’acharnement des autorités pénitentiaires à l’endroit de son mari ne connaissait pas de répit : ce dernier lui a dit que non seulement il vivait toujours dans sa cellule infecte et exiguë, mais aussi que depuis trois jours, il n’avait plus accès à un point d’eau. Les autorités pénitentiaires ont fait couper l’eau, et à la différence de ses co détenus, il ne peut sortir pour se laver ailleurs.
During her March 13th visit to her husband, Slim Boukhdir, a journalist incarcerated in Sfax prison, Dalenda Boukhdhir saw that the prison authorities’ relentlessness knew no bounds: Slim told her that not only he still confined to a foul and cramped cell, but for the last three days, he had no access to a water source. The prison authorities cut off the water, and unlike his fellow prisoners, he could not leave his cell to wash himself elsewhere.
Slim Boukhdhir a alors envisagé une nouvelle grève de la faim pour protester contre cette nouvelle atteinte à ses droits élémentaires, projet que ses proches lui ont proposé d’abandonner. Et aujourd’hui, le couffin de nourriture qui lui a été apporté par sa mère a été accepté par l’administration pénitentiaire, signe que le détenu aurait consenti à renoncer à sa grève, signe aussi que Slim Boukhdhir renvoie la balle dans le camp des défenseurs des droits de l’homme : à nous d’exiger que soit mis un terme à ses conditions infra humaines d’incarcération, à nous de tout mettre en oeuvre pour sa libération.
So Slim Boukhdhir planned a new hunger strike to protest against this new affront to his basic rights, a project his family and friends urged him to abandon. And today, the prison authorities allowed him the food basket his mother brought, a sign that the prisoner agreed to renounce his strike, and also a sign that Slim Boukhdhir is tossing the ball back to the human rights defenders, into their court. It is up to us to demand an end to the inhuman conditions of incarceration. It is up us to do all we can to secure his freedom.
Slim Boukhdir was arrested on November 26 and charged with “aggression against a public employee” and “affront to public decency”. He started blogging on the Arabic Blog Service: Maktoob Blogs after losing his job as journalist at the Tunisian “Akhbar Al-Joumhurya” (News of the Republic) newspaper on August 2004. In July 2007, his blog was hacked into and deleted. Until his arrest on November 26, 2007, Slim Boukhdhir continued his work as correspondent for the Al-Arabiya TV Website, the London-based pan-Arab daily Al Quds Al Arabi and the German Qantara web portal.
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