Tunisia Looks to Draw Tourists Through Limiting Travel of Isrealis

Written by Makula Dunbar

Apr 01, 2014

As Tunisia makes a push to increase tourist visits, the country will not give visas to individual Israeli travelers, the minister of tourism said in an interview with Tunisia Live.

All would-be Israeli visitors need to arrange their travel as a group through a travel agent and receive special permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Tourism Amel Karboul told Tunisia Live.

Special procedures are in place for Jews visiting Tunisia in mid-May for the annual pilgrimage to the ancient Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba, she added.

Karboul said the rules were a consequence of the lack of diplomatic ties between Israel and Tunisia, stressing it had nothing to do with religion.

Tunisia has a small Jewish population of around 1,700, most living around the capital of Tunis or on Djerba.

Israeli visitors were, prior to Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, permitted, with visas available through Tunisian diplomatic outposts in Ramallah or elsewhere, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Yigal Palmor told Tunisia Live.

Prior to the revolution, Israeli tourists would visit Tunisia “very regularly,” Palmor said.

Karboul said “diplomatic problems” have kept Tunisian diplomats from entering the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The clarification on Tunisia’s visa policy for Israelis comes after an incident in early March in which a number of Israeli tourists on a cruise ship were refused entry to Tunisia.

Norwegian Cruise Lines, a United States-based company that operated the trip, canceled all future Tunisia port stops in response to the incident.