The Tunisian Secretary of State for Justice warned the Tunisian Jews against “Zionist tendencies,” threatened to expel any Jews who have relations with Zionist organizations, and pledged that the Tunisian Government would allow Jews who desired to leave for Israel or elsewhere.
The secretary, Ahmed Mestiri, was quoted today in an interview with Le Monde, one of the leading French newspapers. M. Mestiri was interviewed in the presence of Andre Barouch, Secretary of State for Public Works and a Jew; Ahmed Zarouche, Governor of Tunis, and members of a “Temporary Commission for the Management of the Jewish Religion.” M. Mestiri was in Tunis for the installation of the new Chief Rabbi, Dr. Meiss Cohen.
“Nothing must distinguish the Jewish citizen from other citizens,” M. Mestiri told the Le Monde reporter. “If, however, there are people who feel more French than Tunisian and who still dream of the Promised Land, and look towards Israel and, willingly or not, play the Zionist game, we tell them that it is in their interest and in the interest of Tunisia that they should leave for wherever they want and we shall not prevent them from doing so.”
M. Mestiri said further that the Tunisian Government would “take the initiative to make leave the country all those who have secret or other relations with Zionist organizations and thus introduce into the country unrest.”
(The New York Times reports today in a cable from Tunis that Dr. Maurice L. Perlzweig, representative of the World Jewish Congress, said there that the Jews of Tunisia, between 60,000 and 70,000 in number, “are in no way discriminated against and the government is sincere in its efforts to do everything it can to give the Jews an even break.”)
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