A historic but defunct synagogue in Tunisia was burned to the ground by rioters who blamed Israel for an attack on a hospital in Gaza, reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). The incident happened on Tuesday night, October 17th, after a rocket hit the Al-Ahli hospital. Although Israeli Defence Forces produced evidence that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian jihadist group’s misfired rocket, hundreds of people set fire to a synagogue in the central Tunisian city of Al Hammah in the hours after the explosion.
A video taken on Wednesday shows heavy damage to the site, including the fenced-off grave of a 16th-century rabbi that has been a historic pilgrimage site for some Jews. The same site was previously damaged during the 2011 Arab Spring protests. The synagogue was not an active site of worship, as no Jews live in the city.
The American Jewish Committee denounced the vandalism in a statement. The European Jewish Congress wrote: “Once again, we see how many anti-Israel demonstrations target Jews around the world, showing its inherent antisemitic nature.”
As in many other Arab nations, people in Tunisia have taken to the streets in large numbers to support Palestinians. The North African country has a small Jewish population of around 1,000, but they still had to endure a deadly terrorist attack earlier this year when a gunman stormed a synagogue on the island of Djerba, killing five people.
Not far from Tunisia, in the Spanish exclave of Melilla—bordering Morocco—police had to stop a crowd from attacking a synagogue. Several hundred people demonstrated on Wednesday night in the centre of the city, and some of them gathered outside the synagogue, shouting “murderous Israel.” The police were forced to intervene to protect the people inside the building.As previously reported, pro-Palestinian demonstrators flooded the streets of Europe’s major cities last weekend. Against this backdrop, there has also been a rise in antisemitic demonstrations and attacks in Europe. During the early hours of Wednesday, two unknown assailants attempted to firebomb a synagogue in Berlin.
