Roger Bismuth, the head of Tunisia’s Jewish community, has expressed concern over the victory of Islamist Ennadah (‘Resurrection’) party in the first free elections since the fall of the Ben-Ali regime in January. “If Ennahda is going to win a majority of the seats in parliament, it is a problem, because then you replace one dictatorship with another,” Bismuth told the ‘Jerusalem Post’. However, he added: “If you follow their promises during the campaign, nothing will happen, because they said they wouldn’t be extreme and support human rights, but you never know.”
On Tuesday, Ennadah said it had won 40 percent of the seats in the 217-member National Constituent Assembly. However, short of an overall majority it will have to enter talks with other political groups. Final results were expected later on Wednesday. The Islamic movement was banned by the previous regime and espouses a moderate form of Islam similar to Turkey’s ruling AKP. Bismuth said the nature of the coalition that the party will form would be crucial for the future of the 11 million Tunisians. Only about 1,700 Jews live in the North African country which has borders with Algeria and Libya. The community once numbered 100,000.
Referring to the Ennahda party leader Rached Ghannouchi (pictured left), who is widely seen as a moderate, Rabbi Benjamin Hatab, the head of the main synagogue in the country's capital Tunis, told the news service ‘YNet’: "It doesn't matter to us whether the leader is Ghannouchi or anybody else as long as there's a democracy like everyone keeps promising. We have no problem with Islamic leaders." Hatab pointed out that Ghannouchi had promised to create jobs for the younger generation and “even sent a delegation to Djerba to reassure the Jews there that everything would ok and that they have nothing to worry about. His representatives even brought gifts to Tunis' Jewish nursing home."
Jacob Lellouche, who was the only Jewish candidate in Sunday’s elections, told the ‘Jerusalem Post’ that his candidacy had been positive despite him failing to win a seat in parliament. The restaurant owner said he had been able to show his fellow countrymen that non-Muslims could take part in the nation’s first democratic elections. “I succeeded because now the people know you can come from a minority and still be involved in politics,” he was quoted by the newspaper as saying. Lellouche added that he was not concerned over the victory of the Islamists. The future of the country “is not all black or white, but also has a lot of grey.”
