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JewishHistoryעברית

Tunis riots of 1967

Date
5 June 1967Hebrew date: 26th of Iyyar, 5727
Location
TunisTunisia
Then part of
Republic of Tunisia
Perpetrators
  • Rioters in Tunis (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
0[5]Jews killed. Haaretz states that the anti-Jewish riots of 5 June 1967 did not result in a loss of life. JTA, Jewish Virtual Library and the World Jewish Congress describe burning and looting and do not record a death.
Country

0% of the Jewish population of Republic of Tunisia (c. 1967)[61]

Worldwide

0% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1960)[6]

Category
Pogrom
Confidence
High

Summary

On 5 June 1967, the first day of the war between Israel and neighboring Arab states, rioters in Tunis attacked Jews and Jewish property. JTA reported that a synagogue in the capital was burned and many Jewish-owned shops were looted, and that the British embassy was set on fire and windows of the United States embassy smashed. The following day President Habib Bourguiba denounced the attacks on radio and television, ordered them stopped, and the government apologized to the Jewish community and posted special police in the Jewish quarter. In a four-day trial that ended on 1 August, a Tunis court sentenced Mohamed Ben Janet to twenty years at hard labor as the alleged leader and 53 others to terms of up to fifteen years. Jewish Virtual Library records that synagogues and shops were burned, that Bourguiba apologized to the chief rabbi, and that about 7,000 Jews then immigrated to France. The World Jewish Congress states that the Great Synagogue of Tunis was put to the torch and that the community was later compensated for the damage. Haaretz states that the riots did not result in a loss of life.

Sources

  1. Bourguiba Denounces Mob Attacks on Tunisian Jews. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1967)
  2. 54 Moslems Sentenced in Tunis for Participation in Anti-jewish Riots. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1967)
  3. Jews in Islamic Countries: Tunisia. Jewish Virtual Library
  4. Community in Tunisia. World Jewish Congress
  5. David B. Green, 1967: Tunisians Reject Leader's Moderation, Riot Against the Jews. Haaretz (2016)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 12,079,000[6]c. 1960DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1960 in the 2024 Year Book chapter.
  • Republic of Tunisia: 7,000 – 10,000[61]c. 1967DellaPergola / JVL Arab-world table: 10,000 Jews in Tunisia in 1968. AJYB 1981 lists 7,000 for Tunisia in 1979 after further emigration. Independent Republic of Tunisia after 1956 — not the French protectorate or Vichy/German wartime administrations.

Sources for population estimates

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