WorldViews <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/>
Alone in the Arab world, Tunisians can protest visit by Saudi crown prince
Mohammed bin Salman visit sparks protests in Tunisia

Dozens of protesters gathered in central Tunis Nov. 27 as Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman was set to visit ahead of the Group of 20 summit
in Argentina. (AP)
By Paul Schemm <https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/paul-schemm/>
November 27 at 6:40 AM

Arab leaders generally don’t have to worry too much about protesters when
they visit their neighbors. There has long been a kind of informal code
against allowing criticism of brotherly nations and their heads of state
unless some kind of feud is going on.

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings and the
subsequent widespread crackdowns, that still holds true — with a few
exceptions. One of them happens to be Tunisia.

In the North African country that overthrew longtime dictator Zine
el-Abidine Ben Ali, freedom of assembly and expression remains intact, and
so people were able to say they aren’t thrilled with a visit by Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday.

The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia has been linked by intelligence agencies
to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2 in the Saudi
Consulate in Istanbul. While admitting that the killing took place, the
Saudis have denied that upper levels of government were involved, insisting
instead that the decision to kill the Washington Post contributing
columnist and critic of Saudi leadership was made at the scene by the head
of a 15-man hit squad.
Activists put on clown show to protest Saudi crown prince visit

A group of activists in Tunis put on a clown show mocking Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the eve of his Nov. 27 visit to Tunisia.(Muhammad
Ben Taoufik via Storyful)

Before Mohammed attends the Group of 20 summit in Argentina this weekend,
he has been visiting a number of Arab countries, including close allies
such as the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, where he has been warmly
received. The trips have been described as a kind of comeback tour amid
global disapproval of the Khashoggi killing.

In Tunisia, however, the Bar Association attempted to file a motion to
block the visit, while the Journalists’ Syndicate issued a statement
describing Mohammed as a “true enemy of free expression.”

The activists also adorned the villa that serves as a syndicate
headquarters with a two-story banner showing a robed Saudi figure carrying
a massive chain saw — a reference to the apparent dismemberment of
Khashoggi.

“No to the desecration of Tunisia, the land of the revolution,” the banner
stated.

A woman walks past a poster depicting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman on the headquarters of the Journalists' Syndicate in Tunis on Nov.
26. (EPA-EFE/REX) (Stringer/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

A similar-size poster showing a figure carrying a whip could be seen at the
headquarters of a women’s association. “No welcome to the flogger of
women,” it said.

Scores of protesters demonstrated Monday night on Tunis’s Avenue Habib
Bourguiba in the center of the city, where the country’s final Arab Spring
showdown with security forces occurred seven years ago.

<https://twitter.com/SameralAtrush>
Samer Al-Atrush@SameralAtrush
<https://twitter.com/SameralAtrush>
<https://twitter.com/SameralAtrush/status/1067099898355568641>

Tunisia: probably the only Arab country where the government will receive
the Saudi crown prince and not crackdown on a protest against him.
50 <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1067099898355568641>
5:56 PM - Nov 26, 2018
<https://twitter.com/SameralAtrush/status/1067099898355568641>
Twitter Ads info and privacy <https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>

32 people are talking about this
<https://twitter.com/SameralAtrush/status/1067099898355568641>
Twitter Ads info and privacy <https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>

The crowd protested in front of the national theater, carrying posters
condemning Mohammed as a war criminal who is not welcome in Tunisia. There
were even actors dressed as clowns and Saudis performing a satirical
protest skit.

“The Tunisian revolution . . . cannot agree to receive him and allow him to
clean himself of a murder,” Soukaina Abdessamad of the journalists’ union
told reporters, according to Reuters. “We will stage protests on Monday and
Tuesday.”

On the eve of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Nov. 27 visit to
Tunisia, activists in Tunis protest the killing of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi. (Hassene Dridi/AP)

The next day, amid heavy security, hundreds marched down the avenue waving
the Palestinian flag, chanting against the Saudi-led war on Yemen and
calling for Mohammed to be kicked out. Many in the crowd waved saws — a
further reference to the dismemberment of Khashoggi.

Although the numbers were fairly small for a Tunisian protest, the scene
stood in marked contrast to images out of Egypt, where President Abdel
Fatah al-Sissi welcomed the prince and where fake images of the pyramids
adorned with the Saudi flag were widely shared on social media. In Cairo’s
Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt’s own Arab Spring revolt, a few
people carrying Saudi and Egyptian flags posed for photographers Tuesday.

Although Egypt followed Tunisia with its own pro-democratic uprising in
2011, a military coup eventually brought Sissi to power, and all forms of
anti-government protest have been banned.

In his final column, Khashoggi noted that Tunisia was one of the few states
in the Arab world that still had some degree of freedom of expression.

<https://twitter.com/KarenAttiah>
Karen Attiah
✔@KarenAttiah
<https://twitter.com/KarenAttiah>
<https://twitter.com/KarenAttiah/status/1066517529605140480>

In the final column of #Khashoggi
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Khashoggi?src=hash>’s I edited after his
murder, he praised Tunisia for its press freedom. https://www.
washingtonpost.com/amphtml/opinio
ns/global-opinions/jamal-khashoggi-what-the-arab-world-needs-most-is-free-expression/2018/10/17/adfc8c44-d21d-11e8-8c22-fa2ef74bd6d6_story.html
… <https://t.co/x1JCwK8ZKJ>

Now, Tunisians want to bar the man who ordered his murder, Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, from entering the country: https://www.
bloomberg.com/amp/news/artic
les/2018-11-23/mbs-not-welcome-in-tunisia-say-activists-angry-over-khashoggi
… <https://t.co/xIUkpMGl11>
7,610 <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1066517529605140480>
3:22 AM - Nov 25, 2018
<https://twitter.com/KarenAttiah/status/1066517529605140480>
Twitter Ads info and privacy <https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>

2,665 people are talking about this
<https://twitter.com/KarenAttiah/status/1066517529605140480>
Twitter Ads info and privacy <https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>

Saudi Arabia is also providing refuge to Tunisia’s deposed dictator.

The Tunisian government has denounced Khashoggi’s killing and called for
the truth to come out, but that has not stopped it from welcoming Mohammed.

Noureddine Ben Ticha, counselor to President Beji Caid Essebsi, said
<https://www.huffpostmaghreb.com/entry/plusieurs-organisations-sopposent-a-la-venue-de-ben-salmane-en-tunisie_mg_5bfbe671e4b0eb6d93111470?utm_hp_ref=mg-tunisie>
all
Arab leaders were welcome as part of the effort to build ties with
brotherly nations.

One of the posters that protesters carried Tuesday showed Essebsi, his
pockets stuffed with money, washing the blood off a whistling prince’s
hands.

Tunisia is also facing a faltering economy with a high unemployment rate
and record levels of popular dissatisfaction. As a result, at least in some
polls, people have expressed nostalgia for the pre-revolutionary era. It
has also been hit by terrorist attacks. On Oct. 29, a woman blew herself up
on the same avenue where Tuesday’s protest occurred.
-- 
Cherbib Mouhieddine
0033650520416
0021623021802