El Hamma synagogue was a historic non-functioning synagogue in El Hamma, Tunisia. It was heavily damaged by rioters during pro-Palestine protests surrounding the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.
By 2023, the synagogue was no longer an active house of worship, as there were no longer Jews in El Hamma. As the burial site of 16th century Kabbalist rabbi Yosef Ma'arawi, the synagogue was historically a Jewish pilgrimage site. [1]
In recent years, the synagogue was the target of antisemitic attacks. In March 2011 during the Arab Spring, the synagogue's entry gate, guard house, a Torah scroll were damaged in an arson attack. [2]
During pro-Palestine protests on 17 October 2023 during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, hundreds of rioters set fire to the synagogue building, hammered away the building's walls, and planted Palestinian flags at the site. Police did not intervene. [1]
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency described the 2023 riot as depriving "Al Hammah of a key vestige of its Jewish past." The 2023 attack came five months after a mass shooting at the El Ghriba Synagogue, also in Tunisia. [1] Activist Rafram Chaddad told Al-Monitor that "In every event that Palestinians get killed, the Jews of Tunisia get attacked in turn. It’s a ritual." Tunisian President Kais Saied called an emergency session of Parliament after the attack, but did not condemn the attack on the synagogue. [3]
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The history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict traces back to the late 19th century when Zionists sought to establish a homeland for the Jewish people in Ottoman-controlled Palestine, a region roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, issued by the British government, endorsed the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, which led to an influx of Jewish immigrants to the region. Following World War II and the Holocaust, international pressure mounted for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, leading to the creation of Israel in 1948.
Jewish Voice for Peace is an American anti-Zionist left-wing Jewish advocacy organization that is critical of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
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Al-Hamma was a Palestinian Arab village in the Tiberias Subdistrict, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southeast of Tiberias. It was situated on a narrow salient in the Yarmouk Valley bounded by Syria to the north and Transjordan to the south and east. Al-Hamma was one of the stations on the Jezreel Valley railway, linking the Hejaz Railway to Haifa. It was depopulated twice, once in July 1949, and again between 1949 and 1956.

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Reactions to the 2014 Gaza War came from around the world.
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Antisemitism is a growing problem in 21st-century Germany.
The 2021 Gaza War, sometimes called the Unity Intifada, was a major outbreak of violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict that mainly commenced on 10 May 2021, and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. It was marked by protests and police riot control, rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. The crisis was triggered on 6 May, when Palestinians in East Jerusalem began protesting over an anticipated decision of the Supreme Court of Israel on the eviction of six Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Under international law, the area, effectively annexed by Israel in 1980, is a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank; On 7 May, according to Israel's Channel 12, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli police forces, who then stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound using tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades. The crisis prompted protests around the world as well as official reactions from world leaders.
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Antisemitism in New Zealand is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the New Zealand Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since New Zealand's Jewish community was established in the 19th century.