Podcasts about bizerte

durée : 00:52:52 - Affaires sensibles - par : Fabrice Drouelle, Franck COGNARD - Aujourd'hui dans Affaires Sensibles, plongée dans un événement méconnu de la décolonisation : la crise de Bizerte. - invités : Emmanuel Alcaraz - Emmanuel Alcaraz : Historien - réalisé par : Helene Bizieau

fWotD Episode 2786: Battle of the Bagradas River (240 BC) Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia’s finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 20 December 2024 is Battle of the Bagradas River (240 BC).The Battle of the Bagradas River was fought between a Carthaginian army led by Hamilcar Barca, who was victorious, and a rebel force led by Spendius in 240 BC in what is now north-east Tunisia. Carthage was fighting a coalition of mutinous soldiers and rebellious African cities in the Mercenary War, which had started late the previous year in the wake of the First Punic War. The rebels were blockading Carthage and besieging the northern ports of Utica and Hippo (modern Bizerte). A Carthaginian army commanded by Hanno had attempted and failed to relieve Utica early in 240 BC. A second army was assembled in Carthage and entrusted to Hamilcar, who had commanded Carthaginian forces on Sicily for the last six years of the First Punic War.The new Carthaginian army left Carthage and evaded the rebel blockade by crossing the Bagradas River (the modern Medjerda River) at its mouth. Rebel armies commanded by Spendius from both the Utica siege and a camp guarding the only bridge over the lower Bagradas River marched towards the Carthaginians. When they came into sight Hamilcar ordered the Carthaginians to feign a retreat. The rebels broke ranks to chase after the Carthaginians and this impetuous pursuit caused them to fall into confusion. Once the rebels had drawn close, the Carthaginians turned and charged them. The rebels broke and were routed. The Carthaginians pursued, killing or capturing many of the rebels and taking the fortifications guarding the bridge.This victory gave Hamilcar freedom to manoeuvre and the operational initiative. He confronted towns and cities that had gone over to the rebels, bringing them back to Carthaginian allegiance. Spendius confronted Hamilcar again in the mountains of north west Tunisia and Hamilcar was again victorious. Spendius had his Carthaginian prisoners tortured to death. Hamilcar in turn had existing and future prisoners trampled to death by elephants. After two further years of increasingly bitter warfare the rebels were worn down and eventually defeated at the Battle of Leptis Parva.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:01 UTC on Friday, 20 December 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Battle of the Bagradas River (240 BC) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Gregory.

Dans la lagune marine de Bizerte, au nord-ouest de la Tunisie, une entreprise franco-tunisienne cultive et transforme l'algue rouge en gélatine alimentaire végétale. Fruit d'investissements français et koweïtiens, le projet a mis trente ans à voir le jour, le temps de faire les études d'impact environnemental. Aujourd'hui, Selt Marine est en pleine expansion : 8 millions d'euros seront investis dans les deux prochaines années pour augmenter la production en Tunisie et ailleurs en Afrique. De notre correspondante à Tunis,Ce n'est pas le bruit des vagues qui résonne dans le cabanon face à la lagune de Bizerte, en Tunisie, mais les mains des femmes qui lavent minutieusement des algues dans de grands bacs d'eau. « Je nettoie, je lave bien et ensuite les algues sont séchées. Une fois que c'est fait, les pêcheurs nous rapportent un nouveau stock de la mer et on répète le processus », détaille Mongia Thabet, 55 ans, qui exécute cette opération au quotidien depuis près de sept ans.Séchées au soleil tunisienLes algues sèchent au soleil sur de grandes tables et c'est ainsi qu'elles deviennent blanches. Un processus artisanal qui distingue cette production d'autres productions dans le monde. « La plupart de nos concurrents, pour ne pas dire tous, le font avec du peroxyde, donc des agents chimiques. Depuis le départ de la création de la société, nous, on blanchit avec le soleil tunisien, explique Mounir Boulkout, le fondateur de l'entreprise Selt Marine. Et cette blancheur est une marque de qualité pour nos clients. »À écouter dans C'est pas du ventLe boom prometteur des alguesÉmulsifiant ou gélatine végétaleSur une superficie de 80 hectares de concession marine, Selt Marine cultive et transforme l'algue rouge en n'utilisant aucun produit chimique. Dans la mer, la reproduction de l'algue est contrôlée grâce à des tubes et des cordages où poussent les algues, récupérées ensuite par les pêcheurs, sans perte. Près de 10 000 tonnes d'algues rouges sont ainsi cultivées par an.Le produit fini est vendu aux grands groupes industriels qui s'en servent comme émulsifiant ou gélatine alimentaire. « Boulkout, en arabe, veut dire "celui qui donne à manger" donc j'ai un peu une obligation !, plaisante Mounir Boulkout. Dans la plupart des produits transformés, vous avez des ingrédients, des additifs, qui ne sont pas toujours très sains, pas toujours d'origine végétale. Nous fabriquons un produit d'origine végétale avec un processus et des vertus écologiques. »Biodiversité recrééeCar la production d'algues recrée de la biodiversité marine et attire de nouveau les poissons et les crustacés dans une région victime de surpêche et du réchauffement climatique. « Quand je suis arrivé en 1995, on ramassait et on trouvait énormément d'algues en juillet-août, se souvient le patron de Selt Marine. Ce n'est plus le cas. Il n'y a plus rien parce qu'il y a à peu près trois quatre ans, la Méditerranée a pris 5 degrés pendant l'été. »L'entreprise travaille donc principalement d'octobre à juin pour s'adapter et exploite aussi des concessions au Mozambique et à Zanzibar.À lire aussiEn Tunisie, la colère des pêcheurs et des transporteurs

Listen to the premiere episode of the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, the multi-award-winning, chart-topping, and first-ever narrative podcast series to focus exclusively on Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews. This week's episode focuses on Jews from Tunisia. If you like what you hear, subscribe before the next episode drops on September 3. “In the Israeli DNA and the Jewish DNA, we have to fight to be who we are. In every generation, empires and big forces tried to erase us . . . I know what it is to be rejected for several parts of my identity... I'm fighting for my ancestors, but I'm also fighting for our future generation.”  Hen Mazzig, a writer, digital creator, and founder of the Tel Aviv Institute, shares his powerful journey as a proud Israeli, LGBTQ+, and Mizrahi Jew, in the premiere episode of the second season of the award-winning podcast, The Forgotten Exodus. Hen delves into his family's deep roots in Tunisia, their harrowing experiences during the Nazi occupation, and their eventual escape to Israel. Discover the rich history of Tunisia's ancient Amazigh Jewish community, the impact of French colonial and Arab nationalist movements on Jews in North Africa, and the cultural identity that Hen passionately preserves today. Joining the conversation is historian Lucette Valensi, an expert on Tunisian Jewish culture, who provides scholarly insights into the longstanding presence of Jews in Tunisia, from antiquity to their exodus in the mid-20th century. ___ Show notes: Sign up to receive podcast updates here. Learn more about the series here. Song credits:  "Penceresi Yola Karsi" -- by Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Sentimental Oud Middle Eastern”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Sotirios Bakas (BMI), IPI#797324989. “Meditative Middle Eastern Flute”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Danielyan Ashot Makichevich (BMI), IPI Name #00855552512, United States BMI “Tunisia Eastern”: Publisher: Edi Surya Nurrohim, Composer: Edi Surya Nurrohim, Item ID#155836469. “At The Rabbi's Table”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Fazio Giulio (IPI/CAE# 00198377019). “Fields Of Elysium”; Publisher: Mysterylab Music; Composer: Mott Jordan; ID#79549862  “Frontiers”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI); Composer: Pete Checkley (BMI), IPI#380407375 “Hatikvah (National Anthem Of Israel)”; Composer: Eli Sibony; ID#122561081 “Tunisian Pot Dance (Short)”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI); Composer: kesokid, ID #97451515 “Middle East Ident”; Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Alpha (ASCAP); Composer: Alon Marcus (ACUM), IPI#776550702 “Adventures in the East”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI) Composer: Petar Milinkovic (BMI), IPI#00738313833. ___ Episode Transcript: HEN MAZZIG: They took whatever they had left and they got on a boat. And my grandmother told me this story before she passed away on how they were on this boat coming to Israel.  And they were so happy, and they were crying because they felt that finally after generations upon generations of oppression they are going to come to a place where they are going to be protected, and that she was coming home. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations–despite hardship, hostility, and hatred–then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not. This is The Forgotten Exodus.  Today's episode: leaving Tunisia. __ [Tel Aviv Pride video] MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: Every June, Hen Mazzig, who splits his time between London and Tel Aviv, heads to Israel to show his Pride. His Israeli pride. His LGBTQ+ pride. And his Mizrahi Jewish pride. For that one week, all of those identities coalesce.  And while other cities around the world have transformed Pride into a June version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Israel is home to one of the few vibrant LGBTQ communities in the Middle East. Tel Aviv keeps it real. HEN: For me, Pride in Israel, in Tel Aviv, it still has this element of fighting for something. And that it's important for all of us to show up and to come out to the Pride Parade because if we're not going to be there, there's some people with agendas to erase us and we can't let them do it. MANYA: This year, the Tel Aviv Pride rally was a more somber affair as participants demanded freedom for the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza since October 7th.  On that day, Hamas terrorists bent on erasing Jews from the Middle East went on a murderous rampage, killing more than 1,200, kidnapping 250 others, and unleashing what has become a 7-front war on Israel. HEN: In the Israeli DNA and the Jewish DNA we have to fight to be who we are. In every generation, empires and big forces tried to erase us, and we had to fight. And the LGBTQ+ community also knows very well how hard it is. I know what it is to be rejected for several parts of my identity. And I don't want anyone to go through that. I don't want my children to go through that. I'm fighting for my ancestors, but I'm also fighting for our future generation. MANYA: Hen Mazzig is an international speaker, writer, and digital influencer. In 2022, he founded the Tel Aviv Institute, a social media laboratory that tackles antisemitism online. He's also a second-generation Israeli, whose maternal grandparents fled Iraq, while his father's parents fled Tunisia – roots that echo in the family name: Mazzig. HEN: The last name Mazzig never made sense, because in Israel a lot of the last names have meaning in Hebrew.  So I remember one of my teachers in school was saying that Mazzig sounds like mozeg, which means pouring in Hebrew. Maybe your ancestors were running a bar or something? Clearly, this teacher did not have knowledge of the Amazigh people. Which, later on I learned, several of those tribes, those Amazigh tribes, were Jewish or practiced Judaism, and that there was 5,000 Jews that came from Tunisia that were holding both identities of being Jewish and Amazigh.  And today, they have last names like Mazzig, and Amzaleg, Mizzoug. There's several of those last names in Israel today. And they are the descendants of those Jewish communities that have lived in the Atlas Mountains. MANYA: The Atlas Mountains. A 1,500-mile chain of magnificent peaks and treacherous terrain that stretch across Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, separating the Sahara from the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastline.  It's where the nomadic Amazigh have called home for thousands of years. The Amazigh trace their origins to at least 2,000 BCE  in western North Africa. They speak the language of Tamazight and rely on cattle and agriculture as their main sources of income.  But textiles too. In fact, you've probably heard of the Amazigh or own a rug woven by them. A Berber rug. HEN: Amazigh, which are also called Berbers. But they're rejecting this term because of the association with barbarians, which was the title that European colonialists when they came to North Africa gave them. There's beautiful folklore about Jewish leaders within the Amazigh people. One story that I really connected to was the story of Queen Dihya that was also known as El-Kahina, which in Arabic means the Kohen, the priest, and she was known as this leader of the Amazigh tribes, and she was Jewish.  Her derrogaters were calling her a Jewish witch, because they said that she had the power to foresee the future. And her roots were apparently connected to Queen Sheba and her arrival from Israel back to Africa. And she was the descendant of Queen Sheba. And that's how she led the Amazigh people.  And the stories that I read about her, I just felt so connected. How she had this long, black, curly hair that went all the way down to her knees, and she was fierce, and she was very committed to her identity, and she was fighting against the Islamic expansion to North Africa.  And when she failed, after years of holding them off, she realized that she can't do it anymore and she's going to lose. And she was not willing to give up her Jewish identity and convert to Islam and instead she jumped into a well and died. This well is known today in Tunisia. It's the [Bir] Al-Kahina or Dihya's Well that is still in existence. Her descendants, her kids, were Jewish members of the Amazigh people.  Of course, I would like to believe that I am the descendant of royalty. MANYA: Scholars debate whether the Amazigh converted to Judaism or descended from Queen Dihya and stayed.  Lucette Valensi is a French scholar of Tunisian history who served as a director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, one of the most prestigious institutions of graduate education in France. She has written extensively about Tunisian Jewish culture.   Generations of her family lived in Tunisia. She says archaeological evidence proves Jews were living in that land since Antiquity. LUCETTE VALENSI: I myself am a Chemla, born Chemla. And this is an Arabic name, which means a kind of belt. And my mother's name was Tartour, which is a turban [laugh]. So the names were Arabic. So my ancestors spoke Arabic. I don't know if any of them spoke Berber before, or Latin. I have no idea. But there were Jews in antiquity and of course, through Saint Augustin. MANYA: So when did Jews arrive in Tunisia? LUCETTE: [laugh] That's a strange question because they were there since Antiquity. We have evidence of their presence in mosaics of synagogues, from the times of Byzantium. I think we think in terms of a short chronology, and they would tend to associate the Jews to colonization, which does not make sense, they were there much before French colonization. They were there for millennia. MANYA: Valensi says Jews lived in Tunisia dating to the time of Carthage, an ancient city-state in what is now Tunisia, that reached its peak in the fourth century BCE. Later, under Roman and then Byzantine rule, Carthage continued to play a vital role as a center of commerce and trade during antiquity.  Besides the role of tax collectors, Jews were forbidden to serve in almost all public offices. Between the 5th and 8th centuries CE, conditions fluctuated between relief and forced conversions while under Christian rule.  After the Islamic conquest of Tunisia in the seventh and early eighth centuries CE, the treatment of Jews largely depended on which Muslim ruler was in charge at the time.  Some Jews converted to Islam while others lived as dhimmis, or second-class citizens, protected by the state in exchange for a special tax known as the jizya. In 1146, the first caliph of the Almohad dynasty, declared that the Prophet Muhammad had granted Jews religious freedom for only 500 years, by which time if the messiah had not come, they had to convert.  Those who did not convert and even those who did were forced to wear yellow turbans or other special garb called shikra, to distinguish them from Muslims. An influx of Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal arrived in the 14th Century. In the 16th Century, Tunisia became part of the Ottoman Empire, and the situation of Jews improved significantly. Another group who had settled in the coastal Tuscan city of Livorno crossed the Mediterranean in the 17th and 18th centuries to make Tunisia their home. LUCETTE: There were other groups that came, Jews from Italy, Jews from Spain, of course, Spain and Portugal, different periods. 14th century already from Spain and then from Spain and Portugal. From Italy, from Livorno, that's later, but the Jews from Livorno themselves came from Spain.  So I myself am named Valensi. From Valencia. It was the family name of my first husband. So from Valencia in Spain they went to Livorno, and from Livorno–Leghorn in English–to Tunisia. MANYA: At its peak, Tunisia's Jewish population exceeded 100,000 – a combination of Sephardi and Mizrahi. HEN: When we speak about Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, specifically in the West, or mainly in the West, we're referring to them as Sephardi. But in Tunisia, it's very interesting to see that there was the Grana community which are Livorno Jews that moved to Tunisia in the 1800s, and they brought the Sephardi way of praying.  And that's why I always use the term Mizrahi to describe myself, because I feel like it encapsulates more of my identity. And for me, the Sephardi title that we often use on those communities doesn't feel accurate to me, and it also has the connection to Ladino, which my grandparents never spoke.  They spoke Tamazight, Judeo-Tamazight, which was the language of those tribes in North Africa. And my family from my mother's side, from Iraq, they were speaking Judeo-Iraqi-Arabic.  So for me, the term Sephardi just doesn't cut it. I go with Mizrahi to describe myself. MANYA: The terms Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi all refer to the places Jews once called home.  Ashkenazi Jews hail from Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Germany, Poland, and Russia. They traditionally speak Yiddish, and their customs and practices reflect the influences of Central and Eastern European cultures.  Pogroms in Eastern Europe and the Holocaust led many Ashkenazi Jews to flee their longtime homes to countries like the United States and their ancestral homeland, Israel.  Mizrahi, which means “Eastern” in Hebrew, refers to the diaspora of descendants of Jewish communities from Middle Eastern countries such as: Iraq, Iran, and Yemen, and North African countries such as: Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco. Ancient Jewish communities that have lived in the region for millennia long before the advent of Islam and Christianity. They often speak dialects of Arabic. Sephardi Jews originate from Spain and Portugal, speaking Ladino and incorporating Spanish and Portuguese cultural influences. Following their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, they settled in regions like North Africa and the Balkans. In Tunisia, the Mizrahi and Sephardi communities lived side by side, but separately. HEN: As time passed, those communities became closer together, still quite separated, but they became closer and closer. And perhaps the reason they were becoming closer was because of the hardship that they faced as Jews.  For the leaders of Muslim armies that came to Tunisia, it didn't matter if you were a Sephardi Jew, or if you were an Amazigh Jew. You were a Jew for them. MANYA: Algeria's invasion of Tunisia in the 18th century had a disproportionate effect on Tunisia's Jewish community. The Algerian army killed thousands of the citizens of Tunis, many of whom were Jewish. Algerians raped Jewish women, looted Jewish homes. LUCETTE: There were moments of trouble when you had an invasion of the Algerian army to impose a prince. The Jews were molested in Tunis. MANYA: After a military invasion, a French protectorate was established in 1881 and lasted until Tunisia gained independence in 1956. The Jews of Tunisia felt much safer under the French protectorate.  They put a lot of stock in the French revolutionary promise of Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Soon, the French language replaced Judeo-Arabic. LUCETTE: Well, under colonization, the Jews were in a better position. First, the school system. They went to modern schools, especially the Alliance [Israélite Universelle] schools, and with that started a form of Westernization.  You had also schools in Italian, created by Italian Jews, and some Tunisian Jews went to these schools and already in the 19th century, there was a form of acculturation and Westernization.  Access to newspapers, creation of newspapers. In the 1880s Jews had already their own newspapers in Hebrew characters, but Arabic language.  And my grandfather was one of the early journalists and they started having their own press and published books, folklore, sort of short stories. MANYA: In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded France and quickly overran the French Third Republic, forcing the French to sign an armistice agreement in June. The armistice significantly reduced the territory governed by France and created a new government known as the Vichy regime, after the central French city where it was based.  The Vichy regime collaborated with the Nazis, establishing a special administration to introduce anti-Jewish legislation and enforce a compulsory Jewish census in all of its territories including Tunisia. Hen grew up learning about the Holocaust, the Nazis' attempt to erase the Jewish people. As part of his schooling, he learned the names of concentration and death camps and he heard the stories from his friends' grandparents.  But because he was not Ashkenazi, because his grandparents didn't suffer through the same catastrophe that befell Europe, Hen never felt fully accepted.  It was a trauma that belonged to his Ashkenazi friends of German and Polish descent, not to him. Or so they thought and so he thought, until he was a teenager and asked his grandmother Kamisa to finally share their family's journey from Tunisia. That's when he learned that the Mazzig family had not been exempt from Hitler's hatred. In November 1942, Tunisia became the only North African country to come under Nazi Germany's occupation and the Nazis wasted no time. Jewish property was confiscated, and heavy fines were levied on large Jewish communities. With the presence of the Einsatzkommando, a subgroup of the Einsatzgruppen, or mobile killing units, the Nazis were prepared to implement the systematic murder of the Jews of Tunisia. The tide of the war turned just in time to prevent that. LUCETTE: At the time the Germans came, they did not control the Mediterranean, and so they could not export us to the camps. We were saved by that. Lanor camps for men in dangerous places where there were bombs by the Allies. But not for us, it was, I mean, they took our radios. They took the silverware or they took money, this kind of oppression, but they did not murder us.  They took the men away, a few families were directly impacted and died in the camps. A few men. So we were afraid. We were occupied. But compared to what Jews in Europe were subjected to, we didn't suffer.  MANYA: Almost 5,000 Jews, most of them from Tunis and from certain northern communities, were taken captive and incarcerated in 32 labor camps scattered throughout Tunisia. Jews were not only required to wear yellow stars, but those in the camps were also required to wear them on their backs so they could be identified from a distance and shot in the event they tried to escape. HEN: My grandmother never told me until before she died, when she was more open about the stories of oppression, on how she was serving food for the French Nazi officers that were occupying Tunisia, or how my grandfather was in a labor camp, and he was supposed to be sent to a death camp in Europe as well. They never felt like they should share these stories. MANYA: The capture of Tunisia by the Allied forces in May 1943 led the Axis forces in North Africa to surrender. But the country remained under French colonial rule and the antisemitic legislation of the Vichy regime continued until 1944. Many of the Vichy camps, including forced labor camps in the Sahara, continued to operate.  Even after the decline and fall of the Vichy regime and the pursuit of independence from French rule began, conditions for the Mazzig family and many others in the Tunisian Jewish community did not improve.  But the source of much of the hostility and strife was actually a beacon of hope for Tunisia's Jews. On May 14, 1948, the world had witnessed the creation of the state of Israel, sparking outrage throughout the Arab world. Seven Arab nations declared war on Israel the day after it declared independence.  Amid the rise of Tunisian nationalism and its push for independence from France, Jewish communities who had lived in Tunisia for centuries became targets. Guilty by association. No longer welcome. Rabbinical councils were dismantled. Jewish sports associations banned. Jews practiced their religion in hiding. Hen's grandfather recounted violence in the Jewish quarter of Tunis.  HEN: When World War Two was over, the Jewish community in Tunisia was hoping that now that Tunisia would have emancipation, and it would become a country, that their neighbors and the country itself would protect them. Because when it was Nazis, they knew that it was a foreign power that came from France and oppressed them. They knew that there was some hatred in the past, from their Muslim neighbors towards them.  But they also were hoping that, if anything, they would go back to the same status of a dhimmi, of being a protected minority. Even if they were not going to be fully accepted and celebrated in this society, at least they would be protected, for paying tax. And this really did not happen. MANYA: By the early 1950s, life for the Mazzig family became untenable. By then, American Jewish organizations based in Tunis started working to take Jews to Israel right away.  HEN: [My family decided to leave.] They took whatever they had left. And they got on a boat. And my grandmother told me this story before she passed away on how they were on this boat coming to Israel.  And they were so happy, and they were crying because they felt that finally after generations upon generations of oppression of living as a minority that knows that anytime the ruler might turn on them and take everything they have and pull the ground underneath their feet, they are going to come to a place where they are going to be protected. And maybe they will face hate, but no one will hate them because they're Jewish.  And I often dream about my grandmother being a young girl on this boat and how she must have felt to know that the nightmare and the hell that she went through is behind her and that she was coming home. MANYA: The boat they sailed to Israel took days. When Hen's uncle, just a young child at the time, got sick, the captain threatened to throw him overboard. Hen's grandmother hid the child inside her clothes until they docked in Israel. When they arrived, they were sprayed with DDT to kill any lice or disease, then placed in ma'abarot, which in Hebrew means transit camps. In this case, it was a tent with one bed. HEN: They were really mistreated back then. And it's not criticism. I mean, yes, it is also criticism, but it's not without understanding the context. That it was a young country that just started, and those Jewish communities, Jewish refugees came from Tunisia, they didn't speak Hebrew. They didn't look like the other Jewish communities there. And while they all had this in common, that they were all Jews, they had a very different experience. MANYA: No, the family's arrival in the Holy Land was nothing like what they had imagined. But even still, it was a dream fulfilled and there was hope, which they had lost in Tunisia. HEN: I think that it was somewhere in between having both this deep connection to Israel and going there because they wanted to, and also knowing that there's no future in Tunisia. And the truth is that even–and I'm sure people that are listening to us, that are strong Zionists and love Israel, if you tell them ‘OK, so move tomorrow,' no matter how much you love Israel, it's a very difficult decision to make.  Unless it's not really a decision. And I think for them, it wasn't really a decision. And they went through so much, they knew, OK, we have to leave and I think for the first time having a country, having Israel was the hope that they had for centuries to go back home, finally realized. MANYA: Valensi's family did stay a while longer. When Tunisia declared independence in 1956, her father, a ceramicist, designed tiles for the residence of President Habib Bourguiba. Those good relations did not last.  Valensi studied history in France, married an engineer, and returned to Tunisia. But after being there for five years, it became clear that Jews were not treated equally and they returned to France in 1965. LUCETTE: I did not plan to emigrate. And then it became more and more obvious that some people were more equal than others [laugh]. And so there was this nationalist mood where responsibilities were given to Muslims rather than Jews and I felt more and more segregated.  And so, my husband was an engineer from a good engineering school. Again, I mean, he worked for another engineer, who was a Muslim. We knew he would never reach the same position. His father was a lawyer. And in the tribunal, he had to use Arabic. And so all these things accumulated, and we were displaced. MANYA: Valensi said Jewish emigration from Tunisia accelerated at two more mileposts. Even after Tunisia declared independence, France maintained a presence and a naval base in the port city of Bizerte, a strategic port on the Mediterranean for the French who were fighting with Algeria.  In 1961, Tunisian forces blockaded the naval base and warned France to stay out of its airspace. What became known as the Bizerte Crisis lasted for three days. LUCETTE: There were critical times, like what we call “La Crise de Bizerte.” Bizerte is a port to the west of Tunis that used to be a military port and when independence was negotiated with France, the French kept this port, where they could keep an army, and Bourguiba decided that he wanted this port back. And there was a war, a conflict, between Tunisia and France in ‘61.  And that crisis was one moment when Jews thought: if there is no French presence to protect us, then anything could happen. You had the movement of emigration.  Of course, much later, ‘67, the unrest in the Middle East, and what happened there provoked a kind of panic, and there were movements against the Jews in Tunis – violence and destruction of shops, etc. So they emigrated again. Now you have only a few hundred Jews left. MANYA: Valensi's first husband died at an early age. Her second husband, Abraham Udovitch, is the former chair of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Together, they researched and published a book about the Jewish communities in the Tunisian island of Djerba. The couple now splits their time between Paris and Princeton. But Valensi returns to Tunisia every year. It's still home. LUCETTE: When I go, strange thing, I feel at home. I mean, I feel I belong. My Arabic comes back. The words that I thought I had forgotten come back. They welcome you. I mean, if you go, you say you come from America, they're going to ask you questions. Are you Jewish? Did you go to Israel? I mean, these kind of very brutal questions, right away. They're going there. The taxi driver won't hesitate to ask you: Are you Jewish? But at the same time, they're very welcoming. So, I have no trouble. MANYA: Hen, on the other hand, has never been to the land of his ancestors. He holds on to his grandparents' trauma. And fear.  HEN: Tunisia just still feels a bit unsafe to me. Just as recent as a couple of months ago, there was a terror attack. So it's something that's still occurring.  MANYA: Just last year, a member of the Tunisian National Guard opened fire on worshippers outside El Ghriba Synagogue where a large gathering of Jewish pilgrims were celebrating the festival of Lag BaOmer. The synagogue is located on the Tunisian island of Djerba where Valensi and her husband did research for their book. Earlier this year, a mob attacked an abandoned synagogue in the southern city of Sfax, setting fire to the building's courtyard. Numbering over 100,000 Jews on the eve of Israel's Independence in 1948, the Tunisian Jewish community is now estimated to be less than 1,000.  There has been limited contact over the years between Tunisia and Israel. Some Israeli tourists, mostly of Tunisian origin, annually visit the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba. But the government has largely been hostile to the Jewish state.  In the wake of the October 7 attack, the Tunisian parliament began debate on a law that would criminalize any normalization of ties with Israel. Still, Hen would like to go just once to see where his grandparents lived. Walked. Cooked. Prayed.  But to him it's just geography, an arbitrary place on a map. The memories, the music, the recipes, the traditions. It's no longer in Tunisia. It's elsewhere now – in the only country that preserved it. HEN: The Jewish Tunisian culture, the only place that it's been maintained is in Israel. That's why it's still alive. Like in Tunisia, it's not really celebrated. It's not something that they keep as much as they keep here.  Like if you want to go to a proper Mimouna, you would probably need to go to Israel, not to North Africa, although that's where it started. And the same with the Middle Eastern Jewish cuisine. The only place in the world, where be it Tunisian Jews and Iraqi Jews, or Yemenite Jews, still develop their recipes, is in Israel.  Israel is home, and this is where we still celebrate our culture and our cuisine and our identity is still something that I can engage with here.  I always feel like I am living the dreams of my grandparents, and I know that my grandmother is looking from above and I know how proud she is that we have a country, that we have a place to be safe at.  And that everything I do today is to protect my people, to protect the Jewish people, and making sure that next time when a country, when an empire, when a power would turn on Jews we'll have a place to go to and be safe. MANYA: Tunisian Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Hen for sharing his story. You can read more in his memoir The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto. Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible.  You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

“In the Israeli DNA and the Jewish DNA, we have to fight to be who we are. In every generation, empires and big forces tried to erase us . . . I know what it is to be rejected for several parts of my identity... I'm fighting for my ancestors, but I'm also fighting for our future generation.”  Hen Mazzig, a writer, digital creator, and founder of the Tel Aviv Institute, shares his powerful journey as a proud Israeli, LGBTQ+, and Mizrahi Jew, in the premiere episode of the second season of the award-winning podcast, The Forgotten Exodus. Hen delves into his family's deep roots in Tunisia, their harrowing experiences during the Nazi occupation, and their eventual escape to Israel. Discover the rich history of Tunisia's ancient Amazigh Jewish community, the impact of French colonial and Arab nationalist movements on Jews in North Africa, and the cultural identity that Hen passionately preserves today. Joining the conversation is historian Lucette Valensi, an expert on Tunisian Jewish culture, who provides scholarly insights into the longstanding presence of Jews in Tunisia, from antiquity to their exodus in the mid-20th century. ___ Show notes: Sign up to receive podcast updates here. Learn more about the series here. Song credits:  "Penceresi Yola Karsi" -- by Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Sentimental Oud Middle Eastern”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Sotirios Bakas (BMI), IPI#797324989. “Meditative Middle Eastern Flute”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Danielyan Ashot Makichevich (BMI), IPI Name #00855552512, United States BMI “Tunisia Eastern”: Publisher: Edi Surya Nurrohim, Composer: Edi Surya Nurrohim, Item ID#155836469. “At The Rabbi's Table”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Fazio Giulio (IPI/CAE# 00198377019). “Fields Of Elysium”; Publisher: Mysterylab Music; Composer: Mott Jordan; ID#79549862  “Frontiers”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI); Composer: Pete Checkley (BMI), IPI#380407375 “Hatikvah (National Anthem Of Israel)”; Composer: Eli Sibony; ID#122561081 “Tunisian Pot Dance (Short)”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI); Composer: kesokid, ID #97451515 “Middle East Ident”; Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Alpha (ASCAP); Composer: Alon Marcus (ACUM), IPI#776550702 “Adventures in the East”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI) Composer: Petar Milinkovic (BMI), IPI#00738313833. ___ Episode Transcript: HEN MAZZIG: They took whatever they had left and they got on a boat. And my grandmother told me this story before she passed away on how they were on this boat coming to Israel.  And they were so happy, and they were crying because they felt that finally after generations upon generations of oppression they are going to come to a place where they are going to be protected, and that she was coming home. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations–despite hardship, hostility, and hatred–then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not. This is The Forgotten Exodus.  Today's episode: leaving Tunisia. __ [Tel Aviv Pride video] MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: Every June, Hen Mazzig, who splits his time between London and Tel Aviv, heads to Israel to show his Pride. His Israeli pride. His LGBTQ+ pride. And his Mizrahi Jewish pride. For that one week, all of those identities coalesce.  And while other cities around the world have transformed Pride into a June version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Israel is home to one of the few vibrant LGBTQ communities in the Middle East. Tel Aviv keeps it real. HEN: For me, Pride in Israel, in Tel Aviv, it still has this element of fighting for something. And that it's important for all of us to show up and to come out to the Pride Parade because if we're not going to be there, there's some people with agendas to erase us and we can't let them do it. MANYA: This year, the Tel Aviv Pride rally was a more somber affair as participants demanded freedom for the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza since October 7th.  On that day, Hamas terrorists bent on erasing Jews from the Middle East went on a murderous rampage, killing more than 1,200, kidnapping 250 others, and unleashing what has become a 7-front war on Israel. HEN: In the Israeli DNA and the Jewish DNA we have to fight to be who we are. In every generation, empires and big forces tried to erase us, and we had to fight. And the LGBTQ+ community also knows very well how hard it is. I know what it is to be rejected for several parts of my identity. And I don't want anyone to go through that. I don't want my children to go through that. I'm fighting for my ancestors, but I'm also fighting for our future generation. MANYA: Hen Mazzig is an international speaker, writer, and digital influencer. In 2022, he founded the Tel Aviv Institute, a social media laboratory that tackles antisemitism online. He's also a second-generation Israeli, whose maternal grandparents fled Iraq, while his father's parents fled Tunisia – roots that echo in the family name: Mazzig. HEN: The last name Mazzig never made sense, because in Israel a lot of the last names have meaning in Hebrew.  So I remember one of my teachers in school was saying that Mazzig sounds like mozeg, which means pouring in Hebrew. Maybe your ancestors were running a bar or something? Clearly, this teacher did not have knowledge of the Amazigh people. Which, later on I learned, several of those tribes, those Amazigh tribes, were Jewish or practiced Judaism, and that there was 5,000 Jews that came from Tunisia that were holding both identities of being Jewish and Amazigh.  And today, they have last names like Mazzig, and Amzaleg, Mizzoug. There's several of those last names in Israel today. And they are the descendants of those Jewish communities that have lived in the Atlas Mountains. MANYA: The Atlas Mountains. A 1,500-mile chain of magnificent peaks and treacherous terrain that stretch across Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, separating the Sahara from the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastline.  It's where the nomadic Amazigh have called home for thousands of years. The Amazigh trace their origins to at least 2,000 BCE  in western North Africa. They speak the language of Tamazight and rely on cattle and agriculture as their main sources of income.  But textiles too. In fact, you've probably heard of the Amazigh or own a rug woven by them. A Berber rug. HEN: Amazigh, which are also called Berbers. But they're rejecting this term because of the association with barbarians, which was the title that European colonialists when they came to North Africa gave them. There's beautiful folklore about Jewish leaders within the Amazigh people. One story that I really connected to was the story of Queen Dihya that was also known as El-Kahina, which in Arabic means the Kohen, the priest, and she was known as this leader of the Amazigh tribes, and she was Jewish.  Her derrogaters were calling her a Jewish witch, because they said that she had the power to foresee the future. And her roots were apparently connected to Queen Sheba and her arrival from Israel back to Africa. And she was the descendant of Queen Sheba. And that's how she led the Amazigh people.  And the stories that I read about her, I just felt so connected. How she had this long, black, curly hair that went all the way down to her knees, and she was fierce, and she was very committed to her identity, and she was fighting against the Islamic expansion to North Africa.  And when she failed, after years of holding them off, she realized that she can't do it anymore and she's going to lose. And she was not willing to give up her Jewish identity and convert to Islam and instead she jumped into a well and died. This well is known today in Tunisia. It's the [Bir] Al-Kahina or Dihya's Well that is still in existence. Her descendants, her kids, were Jewish members of the Amazigh people.  Of course, I would like to believe that I am the descendant of royalty. MANYA: Scholars debate whether the Amazigh converted to Judaism or descended from Queen Dihya and stayed.  Lucette Valensi is a French scholar of Tunisian history who served as a director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, one of the most prestigious institutions of graduate education in France. She has written extensively about Tunisian Jewish culture.   Generations of her family lived in Tunisia. She says archaeological evidence proves Jews were living in that land since Antiquity. LUCETTE VALENSI: I myself am a Chemla, born Chemla. And this is an Arabic name, which means a kind of belt. And my mother's name was Tartour, which is a turban [laugh]. So the names were Arabic. So my ancestors spoke Arabic. I don't know if any of them spoke Berber before, or Latin. I have no idea. But there were Jews in antiquity and of course, through Saint Augustin. MANYA: So when did Jews arrive in Tunisia? LUCETTE: [laugh] That's a strange question because they were there since Antiquity. We have evidence of their presence in mosaics of synagogues, from the times of Byzantium. I think we think in terms of a short chronology, and they would tend to associate the Jews to colonization, which does not make sense, they were there much before French colonization. They were there for millennia. MANYA: Valensi says Jews lived in Tunisia dating to the time of Carthage, an ancient city-state in what is now Tunisia, that reached its peak in the fourth century BCE. Later, under Roman and then Byzantine rule, Carthage continued to play a vital role as a center of commerce and trade during antiquity.  Besides the role of tax collectors, Jews were forbidden to serve in almost all public offices. Between the 5th and 8th centuries CE, conditions fluctuated between relief and forced conversions while under Christian rule.  After the Islamic conquest of Tunisia in the seventh and early eighth centuries CE, the treatment of Jews largely depended on which Muslim ruler was in charge at the time.  Some Jews converted to Islam while others lived as dhimmis, or second-class citizens, protected by the state in exchange for a special tax known as the jizya. In 1146, the first caliph of the Almohad dynasty, declared that the Prophet Muhammad had granted Jews religious freedom for only 500 years, by which time if the messiah had not come, they had to convert.  Those who did not convert and even those who did were forced to wear yellow turbans or other special garb called shikra, to distinguish them from Muslims. An influx of Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal arrived in the 14th Century. In the 16th Century, Tunisia became part of the Ottoman Empire, and the situation of Jews improved significantly. Another group who had settled in the coastal Tuscan city of Livorno crossed the Mediterranean in the 17th and 18th centuries to make Tunisia their home. LUCETTE: There were other groups that came, Jews from Italy, Jews from Spain, of course, Spain and Portugal, different periods. 14th century already from Spain and then from Spain and Portugal. From Italy, from Livorno, that's later, but the Jews from Livorno themselves came from Spain.  So I myself am named Valensi. From Valencia. It was the family name of my first husband. So from Valencia in Spain they went to Livorno, and from Livorno–Leghorn in English–to Tunisia. MANYA: At its peak, Tunisia's Jewish population exceeded 100,000 – a combination of Sephardi and Mizrahi. HEN: When we speak about Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, specifically in the West, or mainly in the West, we're referring to them as Sephardi. But in Tunisia, it's very interesting to see that there was the Grana community which are Livorno Jews that moved to Tunisia in the 1800s, and they brought the Sephardi way of praying.  And that's why I always use the term Mizrahi to describe myself, because I feel like it encapsulates more of my identity. And for me, the Sephardi title that we often use on those communities doesn't feel accurate to me, and it also has the connection to Ladino, which my grandparents never spoke.  They spoke Tamazight, Judeo-Tamazight, which was the language of those tribes in North Africa. And my family from my mother's side, from Iraq, they were speaking Judeo-Iraqi-Arabic.  So for me, the term Sephardi just doesn't cut it. I go with Mizrahi to describe myself. MANYA: The terms Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi all refer to the places Jews once called home.  Ashkenazi Jews hail from Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Germany, Poland, and Russia. They traditionally speak Yiddish, and their customs and practices reflect the influences of Central and Eastern European cultures.  Pogroms in Eastern Europe and the Holocaust led many Ashkenazi Jews to flee their longtime homes to countries like the United States and their ancestral homeland, Israel.  Mizrahi, which means “Eastern” in Hebrew, refers to the diaspora of descendants of Jewish communities from Middle Eastern countries such as: Iraq, Iran, and Yemen, and North African countries such as: Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco. Ancient Jewish communities that have lived in the region for millennia long before the advent of Islam and Christianity. They often speak dialects of Arabic. Sephardi Jews originate from Spain and Portugal, speaking Ladino and incorporating Spanish and Portuguese cultural influences. Following their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, they settled in regions like North Africa and the Balkans. In Tunisia, the Mizrahi and Sephardi communities lived side by side, but separately. HEN: As time passed, those communities became closer together, still quite separated, but they became closer and closer. And perhaps the reason they were becoming closer was because of the hardship that they faced as Jews.  For the leaders of Muslim armies that came to Tunisia, it didn't matter if you were a Sephardi Jew, or if you were an Amazigh Jew. You were a Jew for them. MANYA: Algeria's invasion of Tunisia in the 18th century had a disproportionate effect on Tunisia's Jewish community. The Algerian army killed thousands of the citizens of Tunis, many of whom were Jewish. Algerians raped Jewish women, looted Jewish homes. LUCETTE: There were moments of trouble when you had an invasion of the Algerian army to impose a prince. The Jews were molested in Tunis. MANYA: After a military invasion, a French protectorate was established in 1881 and lasted until Tunisia gained independence in 1956. The Jews of Tunisia felt much safer under the French protectorate.  They put a lot of stock in the French revolutionary promise of Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Soon, the French language replaced Judeo-Arabic. LUCETTE: Well, under colonization, the Jews were in a better position. First, the school system. They went to modern schools, especially the Alliance [Israélite Universelle] schools, and with that started a form of Westernization.  You had also schools in Italian, created by Italian Jews, and some Tunisian Jews went to these schools and already in the 19th century, there was a form of acculturation and Westernization.  Access to newspapers, creation of newspapers. In the 1880s Jews had already their own newspapers in Hebrew characters, but Arabic language.  And my grandfather was one of the early journalists and they started having their own press and published books, folklore, sort of short stories. MANYA: In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded France and quickly overran the French Third Republic, forcing the French to sign an armistice agreement in June. The armistice significantly reduced the territory governed by France and created a new government known as the Vichy regime, after the central French city where it was based.  The Vichy regime collaborated with the Nazis, establishing a special administration to introduce anti-Jewish legislation and enforce a compulsory Jewish census in all of its territories including Tunisia. Hen grew up learning about the Holocaust, the Nazis' attempt to erase the Jewish people. As part of his schooling, he learned the names of concentration and death camps and he heard the stories from his friends' grandparents.  But because he was not Ashkenazi, because his grandparents didn't suffer through the same catastrophe that befell Europe, Hen never felt fully accepted.  It was a trauma that belonged to his Ashkenazi friends of German and Polish descent, not to him. Or so they thought and so he thought, until he was a teenager and asked his grandmother Kamisa to finally share their family's journey from Tunisia. That's when he learned that the Mazzig family had not been exempt from Hitler's hatred. In November 1942, Tunisia became the only North African country to come under Nazi Germany's occupation and the Nazis wasted no time. Jewish property was confiscated, and heavy fines were levied on large Jewish communities. With the presence of the Einsatzkommando, a subgroup of the Einsatzgruppen, or mobile killing units, the Nazis were prepared to implement the systematic murder of the Jews of Tunisia. The tide of the war turned just in time to prevent that. LUCETTE: At the time the Germans came, they did not control the Mediterranean, and so they could not export us to the camps. We were saved by that. Lanor camps for men in dangerous places where there were bombs by the Allies. But not for us, it was, I mean, they took our radios. They took the silverware or they took money, this kind of oppression, but they did not murder us.  They took the men away, a few families were directly impacted and died in the camps. A few men. So we were afraid. We were occupied. But compared to what Jews in Europe were subjected to, we didn't suffer.  MANYA: Almost 5,000 Jews, most of them from Tunis and from certain northern communities, were taken captive and incarcerated in 32 labor camps scattered throughout Tunisia. Jews were not only required to wear yellow stars, but those in the camps were also required to wear them on their backs so they could be identified from a distance and shot in the event they tried to escape. HEN: My grandmother never told me until before she died, when she was more open about the stories of oppression, on how she was serving food for the French Nazi officers that were occupying Tunisia, or how my grandfather was in a labor camp, and he was supposed to be sent to a death camp in Europe as well. They never felt like they should share these stories. MANYA: The capture of Tunisia by the Allied forces in May 1943 led the Axis forces in North Africa to surrender. But the country remained under French colonial rule and the antisemitic legislation of the Vichy regime continued until 1944. Many of the Vichy camps, including forced labor camps in the Sahara, continued to operate.  Even after the decline and fall of the Vichy regime and the pursuit of independence from French rule began, conditions for the Mazzig family and many others in the Tunisian Jewish community did not improve.  But the source of much of the hostility and strife was actually a beacon of hope for Tunisia's Jews. On May 14, 1948, the world had witnessed the creation of the state of Israel, sparking outrage throughout the Arab world. Seven Arab nations declared war on Israel the day after it declared independence.  Amid the rise of Tunisian nationalism and its push for independence from France, Jewish communities who had lived in Tunisia for centuries became targets. Guilty by association. No longer welcome. Rabbinical councils were dismantled. Jewish sports associations banned. Jews practiced their religion in hiding. Hen's grandfather recounted violence in the Jewish quarter of Tunis.  HEN: When World War Two was over, the Jewish community in Tunisia was hoping that now that Tunisia would have emancipation, and it would become a country, that their neighbors and the country itself would protect them. Because when it was Nazis, they knew that it was a foreign power that came from France and oppressed them. They knew that there was some hatred in the past, from their Muslim neighbors towards them.  But they also were hoping that, if anything, they would go back to the same status of a dhimmi, of being a protected minority. Even if they were not going to be fully accepted and celebrated in this society, at least they would be protected, for paying tax. And this really did not happen. MANYA: By the early 1950s, life for the Mazzig family became untenable. By then, American Jewish organizations based in Tunis started working to take Jews to Israel right away.  HEN: [My family decided to leave.] They took whatever they had left. And they got on a boat. And my grandmother told me this story before she passed away on how they were on this boat coming to Israel.  And they were so happy, and they were crying because they felt that finally after generations upon generations of oppression of living as a minority that knows that anytime the ruler might turn on them and take everything they have and pull the ground underneath their feet, they are going to come to a place where they are going to be protected. And maybe they will face hate, but no one will hate them because they're Jewish.  And I often dream about my grandmother being a young girl on this boat and how she must have felt to know that the nightmare and the hell that she went through is behind her and that she was coming home. MANYA: The boat they sailed to Israel took days. When Hen's uncle, just a young child at the time, got sick, the captain threatened to throw him overboard. Hen's grandmother hid the child inside her clothes until they docked in Israel. When they arrived, they were sprayed with DDT to kill any lice or disease, then placed in ma'abarot, which in Hebrew means transit camps. In this case, it was a tent with one bed. HEN: They were really mistreated back then. And it's not criticism. I mean, yes, it is also criticism, but it's not without understanding the context. That it was a young country that just started, and those Jewish communities, Jewish refugees came from Tunisia, they didn't speak Hebrew. They didn't look like the other Jewish communities there. And while they all had this in common, that they were all Jews, they had a very different experience. MANYA: No, the family's arrival in the Holy Land was nothing like what they had imagined. But even still, it was a dream fulfilled and there was hope, which they had lost in Tunisia. HEN: I think that it was somewhere in between having both this deep connection to Israel and going there because they wanted to, and also knowing that there's no future in Tunisia. And the truth is that even–and I'm sure people that are listening to us, that are strong Zionists and love Israel, if you tell them ‘OK, so move tomorrow,' no matter how much you love Israel, it's a very difficult decision to make.  Unless it's not really a decision. And I think for them, it wasn't really a decision. And they went through so much, they knew, OK, we have to leave and I think for the first time having a country, having Israel was the hope that they had for centuries to go back home, finally realized. MANYA: Valensi's family did stay a while longer. When Tunisia declared independence in 1956, her father, a ceramicist, designed tiles for the residence of President Habib Bourguiba. Those good relations did not last.  Valensi studied history in France, married an engineer, and returned to Tunisia. But after being there for five years, it became clear that Jews were not treated equally and they returned to France in 1965. LUCETTE: I did not plan to emigrate. And then it became more and more obvious that some people were more equal than others [laugh]. And so there was this nationalist mood where responsibilities were given to Muslims rather than Jews and I felt more and more segregated.  And so, my husband was an engineer from a good engineering school. Again, I mean, he worked for another engineer, who was a Muslim. We knew he would never reach the same position. His father was a lawyer. And in the tribunal, he had to use Arabic. And so all these things accumulated, and we were displaced. MANYA: Valensi said Jewish emigration from Tunisia accelerated at two more mileposts. Even after Tunisia declared independence, France maintained a presence and a naval base in the port city of Bizerte, a strategic port on the Mediterranean for the French who were fighting with Algeria.  In 1961, Tunisian forces blockaded the naval base and warned France to stay out of its airspace. What became known as the Bizerte Crisis lasted for three days. LUCETTE: There were critical times, like what we call “La Crise de Bizerte.” Bizerte is a port to the west of Tunis that used to be a military port and when independence was negotiated with France, the French kept this port, where they could keep an army, and Bourguiba decided that he wanted this port back. And there was a war, a conflict, between Tunisia and France in ‘61.  And that crisis was one moment when Jews thought: if there is no French presence to protect us, then anything could happen. You had the movement of emigration.  Of course, much later, ‘67, the unrest in the Middle East, and what happened there provoked a kind of panic, and there were movements against the Jews in Tunis – violence and destruction of shops, etc. So they emigrated again. Now you have only a few hundred Jews left. MANYA: Valensi's first husband died at an early age. Her second husband, Abraham Udovitch, is the former chair of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Together, they researched and published a book about the Jewish communities in the Tunisian island of Djerba. The couple now splits their time between Paris and Princeton. But Valensi returns to Tunisia every year. It's still home. LUCETTE: When I go, strange thing, I feel at home. I mean, I feel I belong. My Arabic comes back. The words that I thought I had forgotten come back. They welcome you. I mean, if you go, you say you come from America, they're going to ask you questions. Are you Jewish? Did you go to Israel? I mean, these kind of very brutal questions, right away. They're going there. The taxi driver won't hesitate to ask you: Are you Jewish? But at the same time, they're very welcoming. So, I have no trouble. MANYA: Hen, on the other hand, has never been to the land of his ancestors. He holds on to his grandparents' trauma. And fear.  HEN: Tunisia just still feels a bit unsafe to me. Just as recent as a couple of months ago, there was a terror attack. So it's something that's still occurring.  MANYA: Just last year, a member of the Tunisian National Guard opened fire on worshippers outside El Ghriba Synagogue where a large gathering of Jewish pilgrims were celebrating the festival of Lag BaOmer. The synagogue is located on the Tunisian island of Djerba where Valensi and her husband did research for their book. Earlier this year, a mob attacked an abandoned synagogue in the southern city of Sfax, setting fire to the building's courtyard. Numbering over 100,000 Jews on the eve of Israel's Independence in 1948, the Tunisian Jewish community is now estimated to be less than 1,000.  There has been limited contact over the years between Tunisia and Israel. Some Israeli tourists, mostly of Tunisian origin, annually visit the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba. But the government has largely been hostile to the Jewish state.  In the wake of the October 7 attack, the Tunisian parliament began debate on a law that would criminalize any normalization of ties with Israel. Still, Hen would like to go just once to see where his grandparents lived. Walked. Cooked. Prayed.  But to him it's just geography, an arbitrary place on a map. The memories, the music, the recipes, the traditions. It's no longer in Tunisia. It's elsewhere now – in the only country that preserved it. HEN: The Jewish Tunisian culture, the only place that it's been maintained is in Israel. That's why it's still alive. Like in Tunisia, it's not really celebrated. It's not something that they keep as much as they keep here.  Like if you want to go to a proper Mimouna, you would probably need to go to Israel, not to North Africa, although that's where it started. And the same with the Middle Eastern Jewish cuisine. The only place in the world, where be it Tunisian Jews and Iraqi Jews, or Yemenite Jews, still develop their recipes, is in Israel.  Israel is home, and this is where we still celebrate our culture and our cuisine and our identity is still something that I can engage with here.  I always feel like I am living the dreams of my grandparents, and I know that my grandmother is looking from above and I know how proud she is that we have a country, that we have a place to be safe at.  And that everything I do today is to protect my people, to protect the Jewish people, and making sure that next time when a country, when an empire, when a power would turn on Jews we'll have a place to go to and be safe. MANYA: Tunisian Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Hen for sharing his story. You can read more in his memoir The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto. Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible.  You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

Every business wants to eliminate operational silos, enhance data accuracy, and provide their workforce with unified data sources. And that's exactly why BIC chose to implement the Plex MES solution at their Bizerte factory in Tunisia. In this episode, Mike Loughran introduces Rogelio Demay, Senior Manager IT Manufacturing at BIC, to explain how it has benefited the company and laid the groundwork for the future.   You can find out more about the BIC story with this video case study: https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/company/news/case-studies/digital-transformation-with-bic.html

The fight over the Maghreb (North Africa) was a never-ending battle between the Hapsburgs, the Spanish and the Ottomans vying for control, until Piri Reis paved the way in his Kitab-i Bahriye as Ottoman success and mastery over Tunis. This episode explores the different dimensions of the formation of Tunis as a legitimate Ottoman polity. Join us as we explore the historical consequence of the Tunis' conquest, and Piri Reis' unique depiction of this crucial Ottoman territory. Researchers and Hosts: Rachel Varley, Luchi Casale, Solace Yee, Hunter Magher, Fiona Sawyer, Nasma Kawar Image: Tunisian coastline with the ports of Bizerte and Tunis as far as Kelibia,The Book of Navigation, The Walters Art Museum, ms W658. f. 279b. Music Credit Vlada Balas, “The Road to Mecca.” Volodymyr Piddubnyk, “Middle Eastern Arabic Background Cinematic Music.” Mood Mode, “Funk That Feelings Instrumental.” References: Brummett, Palmira. “Ottoman Expansion in Europe, ca. 1453–1606.” In The Cambridge History of Turkey, edited by Suraiya N. Faroqhi and Kate Fleet, 44–73. Cambridge History of Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Dávid, Géza. “Ottoman Armies and Warfare, 1453–1603.” In The Cambridge History of Turkey, edited by Suraiya N. Faroqhi and Kate Fleet, 276–319. Cambridge History of Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Elliott, J. H. "Iberian Empires." In The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750: Volume II: Cultures and Power, edited by Hamish Scott. 2015 Faroqhi, Suraiya N. “Ottoman Population.” In The Cambridge History of Turkey, edited by Suraiya N. Faroqhi and Kate Fleet, 356–404. Cambridge History of Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Fleet, Kate. “Ottoman Expansion in the Mediterranean.” In The Cambridge History of Turkey, edited by Suraiya N. Faroqhi and Kate Fleet, 141–72. Cambridge History of Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Fleet, Kate. “The Ottomans, 1451–1603: A Political History Introduction.” In The Cambridge History of Turkey, edited by Suraiya N. Faroqhi and Kate Fleet, 19–43. Cambridge History of Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Reis, Pirî, and Tülây Duran. Kitab-I Bahriye Pirî Reis. Edited by Ertugrul Zekâi Okte. Translated by Vahit Çabuk. 3 vols. Istanbul: Istanbul Research Center, 1988. Soucek, Svat. "Islamic Charting in the Mediterranean." In History of Cartography, Volume 2, Book 1, edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Soucek, Svat. "Tunisia in the Kitab-i Bahriye by Piri Reis." Archivum Ottomanicum 5 (1973): 129-296.

En mars 2016, Bertrand Delanoë débarquait à Paris en provenance de Bizerte, spécialement pour le Salon de l'Agriculture. Sans bruit et sans pollution, il venait présenter son nouveau projet : la Sea Bubble. Le Salon International de l'Agriculture 2024 se tient au 24 février au 3 mars. Pour l'occasion, Laurent Gerra vous propose de revenir sur les grands moments de ce rendez-vous, à travers ses différentes imitations.

En Tunisie, 1 313 personnes parties des côtes tunisiennes ont disparu ou sont morts en mer Méditerranée en 2023, selon les chiffres du Forum tunisien des droits économiques et sociaux. Un nombre record. Depuis le début de l'année, les départs de bateaux se multiplient et les familles de disparus restent dans le doute quant au sort de leurs proches qui n'atteignent pas les côtes européennes. Rencontre avec des familles d'une quarantaine de Tunisiens qui ont disparu depuis la mi-janvier. Reportage de notre envoyée spéciale à El Hencha,Depuis début 2024, l'Organisation internationale pour les migrations a décompté 124 disparitions en mer. Dans la ville d'El Hencha, les portraits des disparus en mer sont encore affichés sur une pancarte au rond-point, un mois après leur disparition. Le 10 janvier dernier, près d'une quarantaine de personnes âgées de 12 à 40 ans sont parties vers l'Italie dans une embarcation de fortune. Leurs familles n'ont plus de nouvelles depuis... Comme Meftah Jalloul, 64 ans, poissonnier et père de Mohamed, âgé de 17 ans et son seul fils : « Ce n'était pas sa première tentative, il avait déjà essayé deux fois et à chaque fois, je l'en empêchais. Il avait arrêté l'école et s'occupait d'un troupeau de moutons. Cette fois-ci, je l'ai aidé à partir, je lui ai donné 1 000 dinars, mais il ne m'a pas prévenu de quand est-ce qu'il allait prendre la mer ».Mohamed est parti pendant la nuit, avec une météo incertaine. Lui et les autres ont pris le risque de prendre la mer malgré le mauvais temps, en espérant ainsi ne pas se faire remarquer par les garde-côtes. Depuis, son père ne sait pas s'il a fait naufrage, car il n'a plus de contact : « Le seul espoir, c'est qu'ils aient dérivé vers la Libye. Nous avons des gens de notre entourage qui vont partir sur place, voir s'ils sont dans des prisons libyennes. Vu que j'ai travaillé là-bas, je sais leur dire où aller, c'est notre seule option ».Les familles livrées à elle-mêmesLes familles se sentent abandonnées par les autorités. Le tribunal de Sfax a ouvert une enquête, mais les recherches de corps en mer n'ont rien donné. Fathi Ben Farhat, professeur de Taekwondo de 48 ans, espère aussi que son neveu de 17 ans, Malek, se trouve en Libye : « On se retrouve dans des situations où c'est à nous d'enquêter parce que nous n'avons aucune information. Les députés, le gouverneur, la municipalité, nous appellent, nous les familles, pour avoir des informations sur les recherches, ils n'appellent pas la police. C'est pour vous dire à quel point on est seuls et livrés à nous-même. »Alors que les familles d'El Hencha attendent toujours des informations sur leurs proches, le 12 février dernier, la Garde nationale a annoncé que 17 personnes ont également été portées disparues dans la zone de Bizerte, au nord de la Tunisie. Comme à El Hencha, leurs familles se mobilisent, face à l'impossibilité du deuil, faute d'avoir trouvé les corps.À écouter aussiNaufrages en Méditerranée: les migrants face à une Europe forteresse

En Tunisie, la côte de corail qui s'étend sur 180 km de Bizerte jusqu'à Tabarka, ne rapporte plus grand-chose aux artisans de la ville. Habitués à récupérer les débris ou les branches non exploitables pour l'export, les artisans bijoutiers locaux, autrefois prospères, sont menacés de disparition face à la rareté du corail et sa cherté. Portrait du doyen de cet artisanat à Tabarka. De notre correspondante à Tunis,Dans son échoppe avec pignon sur rue vers le centre-ville, Mokhtar Saoudi, 75 ans et artisan bijoutier dans le corail depuis quatre décennies, guette sa clientèle. Il est tombé amoureux pour la première fois de l'or rouge, à l'âge de 15 ans.« À l'époque, le corail était disponible en grandes quantités. Il se vendait 30 euros le kilo. On allait avec d'autres jeunes à la rencontre des pêcheurs qui ramenaient le corail avec la croix de Saint-André, une croix en métal qu'ils jetaient dans les récifs pour les casser et récupérer dans les filets, les débris. Tout ce que les pêcheurs ne gardaient pas, parce que c'était trop abîmé ou trop petit, on le récupérait et on mettait un peu d'huile d'olive dessus pour le rendre encore plus rouge. Et on le vendait pour quelques dinars dans la rue. »Autodidacte, Mokhtar s'achète ensuite une meule et du papier à poncer, avec lesquels il commence à sculpter des colliers ou des bracelets.À écouter aussiTunisie: la contrebande de corail à Tabarka [1/2]« Les gens venaient de partout en Tunisie »Peu à peu, il ne vit que pour cet artisanat qui attire de nombreux touristes dans cette ville de 20 000 habitants connue pour ses paysages entre la montagne et la mer et la richesse de son corail.« Les gens venaient de partout en Tunisie dans des foires artisanales où l'on vendait nos produits. On avait même la fête du corail, une sorte de festival dédié à l'or rouge. Les affaires se portaient bien. Il y avait déjà des acheteurs qui venaient prendre les belles pièces et allaient directement les vendre en Italie, mais c'était une époque où il n'y avait pas de contrôles douaniers ou autre. »« On se retrouve à travailler à perte »Il ouvre ensuite son atelier dans les années 2000 avec cinq femmes qu'il a formées lui-même, mais surexploité, le corail se fait de plus en plus rare et cher. Il faut désormais plonger à des profondeurs entre 120 et 150 mètres pour en trouver à Tabarka. Depuis dix ans, Mokhtar a vu son chiffre d'affaires baisser considérablement « Tous les jours, je pense à fermer boutique et je n'y arrive pas. Mais concrètement, ce n'est plus rentable pour nous les artisans. On investit en achetant 1 ou 10 kilos de corail à 3 000 euros pour faire nos bijoux, mais ensuite la clientèle ne suit pas. On se retrouve à travailler à perte. »Et la jeunesse n'est pas intéressée pour reprendre le commerce. Une vingtaine de bijoutiers vivent encore du corail à Tabarka. Si Mokhtar s'en sort encore en rachetant à des prix intéressants aux enchères, la marchandise de corail de contrebande confisquée par la douane. L'artisanat, lui, risque de bel et bien disparaître.

Le corail de Tabarka au nord de la Tunisie a longtemps représenté une manne économique pour la région. En 2019, les autorités tunisiennes avaient d'ailleurs démantelé un réseau de trafic international en possession d'un butin de 600 kilos de corail, d'une valeur de 2 millions d'euros. Effectivement, les prix du corail à l'export peuvent atteindre 5 000 euros le kilo. Mais dans le pays, le secteur a perdu de son prestige. Les corailleurs peinent à payer leurs charges face à l'augmentation des coûts de logistique, les plongeurs se raréfient à cause des dangers du métier et la contrebande prolifère, faisant baisser les prix du corail sur le marché. Objet de tous les fantasmes à cause de sa valeur marchande, cet or rouge est aussi l'une des causes de la mort de nombreux plongeurs. Slim Medimegh, plongeur professionnel depuis 26 ans dans les travaux sous-marins et corailleur de première formation, suit de loin le bilan meurtrier. « On en enterre pas mal chaque année, il y a des décès, il y a des disparus qu'on ne retrouve jamais », constate-t-il.Et avec la raréfaction de plongeurs professionnels, le braconnage se développe. Pour récolter le corail, les pêcheurs de l'Antiquité utilisaient la croix de Saint-André, une grosse croix en métal pour taper sur les récifs coraliens, les plongeurs en récupéraient ainsi les débris.Aujourd'hui, cette technique est encore utilisée, ainsi qu'une autre plus moderne, mais tout aussi dévastatrice : « Cela consiste à tracter des grosses chaînes sur lesquelles on accroche des morceaux de filet et ces grosses chaînes sont tractées avec des unités de pêche avec des bateaux de 10 mètres équipés de 200-300 chevaux et plus », indique-t-il.« C'est le jeu du chat et la souris »Des pratiques illégales qui ont failli faire quitter le métier à Mourad Ben Khelifa, armateur de corail depuis une dizaine d'années dans les eaux de Bizerte, au nord. Il fait face à de nombreuses difficultés : les prix de l'hélium, nécessaires pour la plongée profonde, ont quadruplé en dix ans et la concurrence de la pêche de contrebande du corail algérien est très répandue dans l'une des plus grandes réserves de corail rouge en Méditerranée.« On va dire qu'ils frôlent les frontières », explique-t-il. « Parce que moi, je l'entends à la radio toute la journée « Marine nationale, marine nationale, le bateau dans tel endroit, veuillez rebrousser chemin » C'est toute la journée, c'est la chasse, c'est le chat et la souris. C'est une barrière qui est beaucoup plus grande, c'est interdit donc, forcément, ça pas été trop exploité ».De nombreux contrôles douaniers et policiersUne fois pêché, ce corail est écoulé pour l'export, vers l'Italie, qui domine le marché. Un trafic qui fait l'objet de nombreux contrôles douaniers et policiers comme en témoignent les saisies régulières de la douane. Pour Mourad, l'excès de contrôles de plus en plus sévères met aussi en difficulté le secteur légal.« On est rentré dans l'ordre du fantasme », souffle-t-il. « Les flics, quand ils vous arrêtent avec du corail, on dirait qu'ils vous ont attrapé avec du shit. Il y en a un qui trafique, alors ils ferment pour tout le monde, le temps de comprendre et de voir. Plus personne dans la douane ne veut signer un papier parce qu'ils ont peur de se retrouver en prison à cause du corail. L'État a fixé les prix. »Le trafic menace l'écosystème corallien en méditerranée. Une problématique environnementale mise en lumière dans le documentaire tunisien The Red. 

On Travel. Explore. Celebrate Life. this week, join us on an exciting journey through Tunisia. Explore the country's rich history, culture, and stunning landscapes as we guide you through the must-visit destinations and hidden gems. From the ancient ruins of Carthage to the vibrant streets of Tunis, we share insider tips, local insights, and fascinating stories to make your next trip to Tunisia unforgettable.

On Travel. Explore. Celebrate Life. this week, join us on an exciting journey through Tunisia. Explore the country's rich history, culture, and stunning landscapes as we guide you through the must-visit destinations and hidden gems. From the ancient ruins of Carthage to the vibrant streets of Tunis, we share insider tips, local insights, and fascinating stories to make your next trip to Tunisia unforgettable.

durée : 00:52:52 - Affaires sensibles - par : Fabrice Drouelle, Franck COGNARD - Aujourd'hui dans Affaires Sensibles, plongée dans un événement méconnu de la décolonisation : la crise de Bizerte. - invités : Emmanuel Alcaraz - Emmanuel Alcaraz : historien - réalisé par : Helene Bizieau

Bienvenue sur cette série d'épisodes enregistrés en live au musée Aeroscopia à Toulouse. Mission Pilotage : ON AIR c'est 7 épisodes hors-série et 9 invités pour explorer des milieux variés dans un cadre d'échange, en scène ouverte devant le public.Pour ce deuxième épisode, nous accueillons Nils. Champion de planeur et ingénieur en aérospatial, Nils a  pu prendre part à une épopée hors du commun. A l'occasion du centenaire de la première traversée aérienne de la Méditerranée, l'association Réplic'Air a réassemblé un Morane-Saulnier type G, que Nils a ensuite piloté de Fréjus à Bizerte. Entre les particularités "archaïques" de ces premières machines volantes et la folle aventure de s'envoler dans le sillage de Roland Garros, cet épisode vous fera voyager dans le temps et dans les airs...Bonne écoute et bons vols !Notre site internet : https://www.xpchibane.com/Pour nous soutenir :Si tu apprécies ce podcast, la meilleure façon de nous soutenir est de nous mettre un gentil commentaire et 5 étoiles sur Apple Podcasts. Tu peux également parler de L'Expérience Chibane autour de toi à ta famille, tes amis et sur les réseaux sociaux !Au delà de ça, si tu souhaites nous apporter un soutien financier pour nous aider à aller à la recherche d'invités toujours plus passionnants, deux options s'offrent à toi : Patreon - Tu peux t'abonner mensuellement sur Patreon pour nous soutenir et obtenir des contreparties, comme des goodies ! https://www.patreon.com/xpchibane PayPal - Tu peux également nous faire un don ponctuel sur PayPal en cliquant sur le lien, si tu souhaites nous aider à poursuivre cette aventure palpitante !Nos réseaux sociaux :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/xpchibane/Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/xpchibaneTwitter : https://twitter.com/xpchibane/LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/xpchibane/L'équipe de production :Animateur : Sébastien Selle , Thomas RocherPost-production : Victor Guichaoua et Paul Le Roux De BretagneIllustrations : Ilia Gerber, Léa Renault et Marek MadlRéseaux Sociaux : Maxence Le FlahecBande sonore : Thibaut MaurinInformations sur la protection de la vie privée : https://www.buzzsprout.com/privacySupport the showSupport the show

Peut-on rire de tout le monde ? Peut-on se moquer notamment du chef de l'État et des forces de l'ordre, au risque de les provoquer ? C'est la question qui se pose en Tunisie, depuis que quelques policiers ont essayé d'interrompre le spectacle de l'humoriste Lotfi Abdelli. C'était le 7 août dernier, à Sfax, devant 10 000 spectateurs. La liberté d'expression est-elle menacée par le régime du président Kaïs Saïed ? En ligne de Tunis, le célèbre humoriste tunisien Lotfi Abdelli répond aux questions de Christophe Boisbouvier. RFI : Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé le 7 août lors de votre spectacle à Sfax ? Lotfi Abdelli : J'avais mon spectacle comme d'habitude devant un énorme public, 10 000 spectateurs, c'était une très bonne ambiance, on s'éclatait, je tenais mon spectacle, les gens rigolaient et la police était là pour protéger les citoyens et les artistes. D'un coup, cinq individus en civil ont voulu arrêter le spectacle. Il s'avère que c'est le syndicat de la police. Ils étaient très agressifs, ils criaient « arrêtez le spectacle ». Moi, j'ai arrêté le spectacle, je ne suis pas descendu de la scène, je leur ai dit « qu'est-ce que vous voulez ? » Ils ont dit « vous faites des gestes, vous insultez, vous faites des sketchs sur la police, vous n'avez pas le droit». J'ai dit « écoutez, je vous comprends, peut-être que ce que je fais est blessant. Ne gâchez pas, vous n'avez aucun droit d'arrêter le spectacle, et si je fais un geste qui ne vous plait pas, allez porter plainte, on est dans un pays de droit ». Et donc j'ai repris mon spectacle, dans mon spectacle, je n'épargne personne. Je suis engagé, je parle du président, je parle des partis politiques, je parle de tout le monde. Et qu'est-ce que vous répondez au syndicat de policiers qui dit que vous avez été provocateur ? S'ils jugent que je suis provocateur, il y a un juge, ce n'est pas à eux de juger si mon spectacle est bon ou pas bon, ce n'est pas à eux de faire de la censure, ni rien du tout. Et déjà, le ministère de l'Intérieur, après deux jours, a écrit un communiqué où il dit : « Nous notre rôle, c'est de protéger les spectacles, et les spectateurs, et aucun policier, ni aucun syndicat n'a le droit d'arrêter de spectacle », et s'il y a un dépassement, il y a à porter plainte, et c'est tout. Et ce communiqué du ministère tunisien de l'Intérieur, ça vous rassure ou non ? Ça me rassure à 90%, c'est sûr. Et le ministère de l'Intérieur m'a promis ma protection, il l'a promis à mon producteur et moi, il m'a dit « reviens, refais tes spectacles, on te protège, et personne n'a le droit d'arrêter ton spectacle ». Moi, je suis attendu par des milliers et des milliers de spectateurs, pour Bizerte, pour Carthage, pour des grandes villes. Aujourd'hui, en plus, c'est génial, c'est un grand débat qui s'est ouvert en Tunisie : qu'est-ce que l'artiste a le droit de dire sur scène ? Aujourd'hui, on est douze ans après la révolution, qu'est-ce qu'on a le droit de dire ou non ? Alors depuis la révolution de 2011, vous aimez égratigner les hommes de pouvoir, les chefs d'Etats notamment, comme Moncef Marzouki, Béji Caïd Essebsi, et évidemment l'actuel président Kaïs Saïed. Est-ce que vous sentez un durcissement du régime actuel ? Sincèrement non. Je n'ai eu aucun problème avec le régime. Après, tu as des fanatiques parfois du président, ou des fanatiques d'un parti, donc leur réponse ne peut être que fanatique. Après, j'accepte le jeu, je suis là, je provoque, je titille un peu, je suis un miroir de la société, un miroir ne montre pas que les belles choses. Mais on dit que le président Kaïs Saïed n'aime pas beaucoup vos imitations et vos sketchs contre lui ? Il n'aime pas ? Je m'en fous complètement. L'essentiel aujourd'hui, c'est que, quand il y a eu ce problème-là, je crois qu'il a donné des ordres que je dois continuer mon travail. À la suite des derniers incidents de ce dimanche 7 août ? Voilà, c'est sûr que s'il était gêné, il aurait laissé la situation empirer pour moi, mais non. Donc onze ans après le régime Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, vous ne craignez pas le retour d'un État policier ? Non, mais moi, je crains le retour de tout, mais c'est une bataille de tous les jours, la liberté, c'est-à-dire la liberté aujourd'hui n'a rien d'acquis, c'est un test permanent. Le lendemain de cette altercation avec les policiers, vous avez déclaré "je vais quitter définitivement le pays", vous le pensez toujours aujourd'hui ? Oui, et aujourd'hui, je suis partagé, mais je pense quitter, mais ne pas quitter définitivement, parce que déjà, j'ai commencé à faire de la scène en France, j'ai commencé à travailler dans des grands théâtres en France comme Apollo, comme des grandes institutions. J'ai commencé à faire un petit chemin en français, j'ai commencé à avoir des sketchs, ça marche et c'est sûr comme on dit les blancs, et ça fait rire. Vous allez rester aussi en Tunisie ? Entre les deux, je ne vais pas leur offrir cette occasion de se débarrasser de moi comme ça. Mais en même temps, je vais partir ailleurs faire ma carrière internationale, comme ça je les fais chier de l'extérieur et de l'intérieur, c'est mon travail.

La Tunisie connaît depuis des semaines des pénuries de produits de base (farine, pâtes, riz, huiles végétales...). La situation inquiète les Tunisiens, mais aussi les Européens. Sur le terrain, certains acteurs s'activent pour éviter que la situation n'empire. Un groupe d'experts français s'est rendu en Tunisie pour promouvoir la culture du colza auprès d'agriculteurs tunisiens, marocains, mais aussi algériens. Un partenariat qu'ils espèrent gagnant-gagnant. « Soyez les bienvenus ! » Casquettes vissées sur la tête, lunettes de soleil et sac à dos, ils ont tout d'un groupe de touristes. Eux qui arpentent la région de Bizerte ne sont pourtant pas venus admirer ses fameux sites antiques, mais plutôt ses champs de colza. « Une plante de colza c'est une plante qui fait un mètre cinquante de haut, ça reste une belle plante qui embellit nos paysages méditerranéens. » Cet homme qui évoque amoureusement les plants de colza est Aziz Bouhajba, président de l'association tunisienne pour une agriculture durable. Aujourd'hui, la culture de colza s'étend sur 15 000 hectares en Tunisie. Le pays pourrait faire beaucoup mieux selon lui. « Le potentiel théorique est de l'ordre de 300 000 hectares. Cette filière permettrait à horizon 2030 d'être autosuffisante à 50% en huile, ce qui est considérable, explique Aziz Bouhajba. Elle réduirait non seulement la facture d'importations, mais permettrait aussi à notre pays d'être moins soumis aux aléas des marchés internationaux. » Échaudée par la guerre en Ukraine et les problèmes d'approvisionnements, la Tunisie qui importe 98% de ses huiles végétales cherche à encourager la production locale de colza ou encore de tournesol. Pour y arriver, les agriculteurs tunisiens, mais aussi leurs homologues marocains ou encore algériens peuvent compter sur l'aide de la France. Augustin David fait partie des experts français dépêchés sur place. Aider, oui, d'autant que les entreprises françaises y trouvent leurs comptes : « Les entreprises européennes ont un savoir-faire, une expertise, ont des entreprises performantes qui peuvent trouver un réel relai de croissance. Et puis c'est aussi de l'investissement d'outils industriels. » Au-delà de l'intérêt économique que la France pourrait tirer de l'essor de cette filière en Afrique du Nord, il y aurait aussi des enjeux géopolitiques qui entreraient en ligne de compte. « Le fait d'avoir accès à la nourriture en quantité suffisante et à un prix raisonnable permet aussi d'avoir une population dans un bon état social et un pays dans une tranquillité civile. Si on avait des crises majeures au Maghreb, on aurait des phénomènes migratoires ou des grippages des circuits économiques. » Preuve que la question des approvisionnements alimentaires vers le Maghreb préoccupe l'Union européenne, celle-ci vient de débloquer 20 millions d'euros à destination de la Tunisie afin qu'elle puisse se ravitailler en céréales. ► À lire aussi : Tunisie: la culture sur sable, une pratique ancienne qui tente de résister

Die tunesische Hafenstadt Bizerte ist seit Jahrtausenden ein bedeutendes Seefahrts- und Handelszentrum. Um sich zwischendurch zu stärken, essen die Bewohner Lablabi. Hassan Saidani bereitet diesen nahrhaften Snack zu, den es so nur in Bizerte gibt.

The Tunisian port city of Bizerte has been an important maritime and trading center for millennia. To fortify themselves between meals, residents like to eat lablabi. Hassan Saidani prepares this baguette-based local snack.

durée : 00:39:08 - Rendez-vous avec X... - par : Patrick PESNOT, Rebecca DENANTES - Retour sur une affaire oubliée. Ce conflit diplomatique et militaire opposant à l'été 1961 la France et la Tunisie. La France occupait Bizerte, une base militaire, mais surtout une enclave située dans un pays devenu indépendant depuis mars 1956. - réalisé par : Michèle BILLOUD

Per il nostro consueto viaggio virtuale del sabato, non ci sposteremo di molto e con Aura Moia, travel bloggler e socia dell'Associazione Italiana Travel Blogger, visiteremo la Tunisia, il Paese del Nord Africa più vicino all'Italia. Tunisi, Sidi Bou Said, Cartagine, Bizerte, Hammamet, Nabeul, Sousse, Monastir, Kairouan e Tozeur, sono le mete che toccheremo, per un'altra indimenticabile esperienza di viaggio.

durée : 00:24:36 - Jean-Marc Luisada, pianiste (1/5) - par : Judith Chaine - Dans ce 1er volet de nos entretiens, le pianiste Jean-Marc Luisada évoque ses souvenirs d'enfance, le départ de Bizerte en Tunisie à l'âge des 3 ans, ses premiers émois musicaux avec Schubert et Beethoven, son arrivée à Alès et ses premiers professeurs de piano Denyse Rivière et Marcel Ciampi. - réalisé par : Gilles Blanchard

Ridha Hellal Errahmeni : La détérioration de l'état de l'infrastructure à Bizerte --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/radio-awleda/message

J'ai connu Sarah Benali il y a deux ans sur les réseaux sociaux. Etudiante tunisienne, d'abord en droit puis en journalisme, elle réside en France depuis une dizaine d'années. Il y a quelques années, elle a fait le pari fou de créer du contenu sur les réseaux sociaux, pour parler de culture et décortiquer les phénomènes et les problèmes sociaux. Les sujets abordés peuvent aller de la critique de film ou de livre, au racisme, en passant par l'histoire de la prostitution en Tunisie, ou la place de l'écriture inclusive dans la langue française. En 3 ans, elle réussit à réunir plusieurs milliers d'abonnés qui suivent ses interventions. Intervention qu'elle fait en majorité en français mais aussi en tunisien ou en anglais. De passage en Tunisie, je profite de l'occasion pour l'inviter dans Ma Vie en VF. On parle de son enfance à Bizerte, de l'apprentissage des langues étrangères, mais surtout de comment cultiver sa différence et en faire un point fort, même lorsqu'il s'agit de la maitrise d'une langue. Et à l'occasion, on parle aussi du langage des réseaux sociaux et des différentes méthodes à adopter pour toucher sa cible, notamment en termes de canal linguistique. Je la reçois donc chez moi et on fait ce flashback habituel sur l'enfance et la découverte des mots.

Le podcast de la presation LIVE de MOON RUNNERS BAND lors de l'émission HASTA LA FIESTA, l'émission de live de RTCI, du vendredi 31 janvier 2020. Vous pouvez voir les vidéos de MOON RUNNERS BAND ou écouter l'intégralité de ce podcast en choisissant votre plateforme préférée au lien suivant : https://lnkfi.re/moonrunnersband MOON RUNNERS BAND est un groupe de jeunes musiciens de Bizerte, dont l'âge des membres varie entre 16 et 19 ans. Ils ont interprété des reprises de divers groupes et surtout une première heure consacrée à Pink Floyd : * Ramzi Adouania (guitare) * Mohamed Jemili (guitare/chant) * Rami Arafa (guitare/chant) * Mohamed Emir Ferchichi (guitare basse) * Karim Labidi (batterie/chant) * Slim Ouadhour (clavier) Hasta La Fiesta est l'émission de live sur RTCI (Radio Tunis Chaîne Internationale), diffusée tous les vendredi entre 21h et 00h, animée par Karim Benamor.

Le podcast de la presation LIVE de MOON RUNNERS BAND lors de l'émission HASTA LA FIESTA, l'émission de live de RTCI, du vendredi 31 janvier 2020. Vous pouvez voir les vidéos de MOON RUNNERS BAND ou écouter l'intégralité de ce podcast en choisissant votre plateforme préférée au lien suivant : https://lnkfi.re/moonrunnersband MOON RUNNERS BAND est un groupe de jeunes musiciens de Bizerte, dont l'âge des membres varie entre 16 et 19 ans. Ils ont interprété des reprises de divers groupes et surtout une première heure consacrée à Pink Floyd : * Ramzi Adouania (guitare) * Mohamed Jemili (guitare/chant) * Rami Arafa (guitare/chant) * Mohamed Emir Ferchichi (guitare basse) * Karim Labidi (batterie/chant) * Slim Ouadhour (clavier) Hasta La Fiesta est l'émission de live sur RTCI (Radio Tunis Chaîne Internationale), diffusée tous les vendredi entre 21h et 00h, animée par Karim Benamor.

Dans cet épisode de Startup Story sponsored by BEE, nous avons parlé de l'initiative Bizerte et Sousse Smart City. Plus d'informations dans ce podcast. Producteurs : Marwen Dhemayed et Walid Naffati Producteur exécutif : Walid Naffati Enregistrement dans les studios de Jawhara FM Production : StreamingHD

Dans cet épisode de DigiClub powered by Topnet, nous avons invité Moez Mârref, PDG de l'ATI (Attouniseya Internet, ex Agence Tunisienne d'Internet). Il a exposé la nouvelle orientation de l'ATI qui va se positionner plus sur le service avec valorisation de ses compétences ainsi que la digitalisation de bout en bout de son SI. Il a également parlé du consortium Level4 qui est en train de fibrer la Tunisie ainsi que des prochains évènements qu'organise l'ATI. Il a par ailleurs parlé du projet de mise en place de hotspots Wifi dans le centre ville de Bizerte. Plus de détails dans ce podcast. Producteur : Walid Naffati Ingénieur son : Ghazi Neffati Production : StreamingHD Merci particulier à la B@Labs (www.biatlabs.com)

In Tunisia, the Allies had severely weaked the Axis in series of battles since February 26, 1943. By the last week in March, they were preparing for the final offensive. On April 7, U.S. forces in the in east and the British Eight Army in the west coverged to form an unbroken line of Allied forces. The Americans captured Bizerte on May 7, and by May 13 had achieved victory in North Africa. 

Tunisia comes under the spotlight, because it is rewriting the rules about what women can and can't do in an Islamic country. Should it be a role model for its Muslim neighbours? Women have more rights in Tunisia than in any other Islamic country. Since independence in 1956, the Code of Personal Status banned polygamy, gave women almost the same rights in law as men - the freedom to divorce them - and the right to be educated. Following this came the right to vote, stand for office, set up a business, demand equal pay, and the right to an abortion eight years before American women won their right to choose. But has society kept pace with these advances in the law? A recent report indicating that 53% of Tunisian women experience violent attacks in their lifetime suggests legal equality is only part of the story. Based on the testimonies and experience of women (and some men) recorded in Tunisia, including rapper Boutheina ‘Medusa' El Alouadi and Sayida Ounissi, deputy minister for employment, the team debate whether Tunisia's ‘state feminism' joins the My Perfect Country portfolio with the help of Dina Mansour-Ille from the Institute for Overseas Development. (Photo: Tunisian women, one (L) wearing a 'burkini', at Ghar El Melh beach near Bizerte, north-east of Tunis. Credit: Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images)