Hèla Yousfi, "La Palestine, matrice d’un siècle de mobilisations en Tunisie," Contretemps, Octobre 2025
English translation: Hèla Yousfi, "The Palestinian Question as a Framework for a Century of Tunisian Mobilization," Monthly Review, Vol. 77, No. 09, February 2026
Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this article?
Hèla Yousfi (HY): I wrote this article because I wanted to reassert through the example of Tunisia the organic link that binds Arab societies in a shared confrontation with Zionism and Western imperial power. The Palestinian question is not an external or humanitarian concern; it is a central axis of political consciousness and material struggles in Tunisia and in whole the Arab region. The new project of Great Israel baked by western powers is not only a threat to Palestinians, it is a structural threat to the entire Arab region, embedded in an imperialist geopolitical project that seeks to fragment, subordinate, and permanently destabilize it. The Arab uprisings, followed by the wave set in motion by Toufan Al-Aqsa, revived the debate over sovereignty, linking it once again to earlier legacies of self-determination and struggles for national liberation in the region. The last decade has shown us that social justice requires breaking the neo-colonial pact tying local elites to Western power, because no regime (democratic or authoritarian) can endure if it is cut off from the aspirations of its people. At the same time, the national framework, while still essential, is no longer sufficient. The permanent war imposed on the region forces us to see Arab states as interdependent, sharing a common political and economic fate. The region is being pushed toward a brutal binary: normalization with Israel that empties sovereignty of meaning, or a trajectory of erasure driven by permanent violence and Genocide. My work insists that another horizon is possible, one grounded in collective autonomy, regional solidarity, and a radical rethinking of national and regional liberation.
J: What particular topics, issues, and literatures does the article address?
HY: The article examines how the Palestinian cause has acted as a structuring force in Tunisian politics for more than a century, shaping national identity and providing a persistent catalyst for social and political mobilization. It demonstrates that from the 1920s onward—well before the creation of the state of Israel—solidarity with Palestine became embedded in anti-colonial struggle enabling Tunisians to denounce French domination indirectly while fostering a collective sense of belonging rooted in shared Arab struggles. I show how this articulation between Tunisian nationalism and the defense of Palestine intensified during key historical moments, particularly the 1967 Arab defeat (the Naksa), which triggered widespread disillusionment with existing Arab regimes and fueled the radicalization of a new militant left committed to anti-imperialism and socialist revolution. The Palestinian struggle thus became central to the ideological reconfiguration of Tunisian activism, influencing student organizing, trade unionism, and underground opposition movements. After the 2011 revolution, this longstanding connection resurfaced in renewed mass protest against normalization with Israel, reflecting the perception that Palestinian liberation is inseparable from domestic battles for sovereignty, democracy, and dignity. In each of these periods, I argue, Palestine has served not merely as a symbol of international solidarity, but as a political lens through which Tunisians interpret their own experiences of oppression and aspirations for liberation. By analyzing Tunisia as a case in a broader Arab context, the article situates Palestinian solidarity within transnational struggles that reflect a shared political and economic destiny among Arab societies. It thus demonstrates both the historical persistence and the contemporary relevance of Palestine as a structuring element of political imagination and collective action in the Arab region.
The article also engages several academic literatures: Maghreb and Middle Eastern political history, studies of Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, scholarship on radical left movements, work on political Islam and post-colonial state authoritarianism, and contemporary research on civil society, democracy, and BDS-driven anti-normalization efforts. By spanning these bodies of literature, the text positions the Palestinian question as a lens through which broader transformations in Tunisian political culture and struggles for sovereignty and justice can be understood.
J: How does this article connect to and/or depart from your previous work?
HY: I have long worked on the decisive role of social movements in driving political and economic transformations in the Arab region and on demonstrating that Tunisia in particular embodies an ongoing struggle to assert national sovereignty and democratic self-determination against both internal authoritarianism and western imperialism. In my work, I show that collective actors such as unions and grassroots mobilizations not only resist authoritarianism but shape the very trajectory of the state by resisting imposed economic agendas and neo-colonial pacts between local and western elites. In this sense, my work on the Palestinian cause in Tunisia directly complements my broader research by demonstrating how solidarity with Palestine has historically functioned as a catalyst for Tunisian mobilization, shaping political identities and reinforcing demands for popular sovereignty. By tracing a century of activism rooted in anti-colonial resistance and regional solidarity, I aim to show that struggles within Tunisia cannot be separated from wider structures of western domination in the Arab world and broader Arab fights against oppression. My research collectively advances the argument that social movements that social movements in the region—whether mobilizing around labor rights, revolutionary protest, or Palestinian liberation—are fundamentally interconnected expressions of a shared pursuit of justice, popular sovereignty, and emancipation from foreign control.
J: Who do you hope will read this article, and what sort of impact would you like it to have?
HY: I hope this article will reach scholars, students, and activists interested in the political and social history of Tunisia and the wider Arab region. By demonstrating how the Palestinian cause has continually shaped Tunisian mobilization across different generations, I aim to broaden the way we think about national struggles, showing that they are deeply intertwined with transnational solidarities. I would like the article to contribute to current debates on decolonization, democratization, and the defense of popular sovereignty by reminding readers that the fight for justice in Palestine has long been part of a shared regional pursuit of dignity and emancipation.
J: What other projects are you working on now?
HY: I am working on an essay that analyzes how academic freedom in France has shifted from a constitutional right to a state-regulated privilege shaped by neoliberal governance, securitization, and colonial legacies. I show how managerial reforms and precarity have enabled greater state control over research, marginalizing critical fields such as race, gender, and colonial studies. I argue that the repression of pro-Palestinian activism reveals a turn toward criminalizing dissent within universities. Ultimately, I call for reimagining academic freedom as a collective practice of resistance and epistemic justice rather than a selectively granted entitlement.
J: What difficulties did you encounter in conducting research on social movements in the Arab region?
HY: I have encountered significant challenges when researching social movements in Arab countries, especially as repression increasingly targets academic spaces. Positioned within Western academic structures, I must navigate colonial power relations that shape which knowledge is deemed legitimate and which is silenced, placing me in a constant negotiation between insider and outsider status. Conducting fieldwork in authoritarian contexts also means that voices of activists are often hidden, vulnerable, or forced into self-censorship—dynamics that directly mirror the shrinking space for academic freedom and pro-Palestinian expression today. At the same time, translating local political concepts and resistance practices into Western theoretical languages risks erasing their meaning, just as institutional pressures attempt to restrict critical scholarship that challenges dominant political agendas. These intertwined challenges have reinforced my commitment to a decolonial research approach that defends academic freedom as a collective tool of resistance rather than a privilege granted by the state.
One month after this interview was conducted, several activists engaged in solidarity initiatives with Gaza were arrested in Tunisia, highlighting an increasingly marked disjunction between President Kaïs Saïed’s radical rhetoric on the Palestinian cause and the authoritarian practices implemented on the ground. I would like to use this opportunity to express my full solidarity with Tunisian activists detained for their support of the Palestinian cause, and to denounce the growing and shameful criminalization of pro-Palestinian solidarity both internationally and across the Arab world.
Excerpt from the article
1. Palestine and the construction of Tunisian nationalism (1920-1955)
The first expressions of Tunisian solidarity with the Palestinian cause date back to the 1920s, in connection with growing tensions in British-mandated Palestine. The riots of August 1929, known as the Buraq revolt, following a conflict between Jews and Arabs over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, resonated strongly in Tunisia. These protests quickly became a roundabout way of denouncing colonial rule, while strengthening national cohesion without direct confrontation with the French colonial authorities. The Buraq revolt also marked a decisive turning point in the evolution of relations between Jews and Arabs in the Maghreb and played a structuring role in the history of Zionism in the region, as well as in the emergence of Palestinian and Arab nationalism. These events, combined with other dynamics, contributed to the development of Tunisia's position towards the Zionist movement, which had been present in Tunis since 1910.
Hédi Timoumi (1982) highlights how this activity became institutionalized through educational, cultural, and associative networks, often supported by the Alliance Israélite Universelle. In this regard, Chedly Khaïrallah wrote that Zionist theory tended "to molest several hundred thousand co-religionists who only want to live in peace in their own homes and govern themselves as they see fit [...]. Zionism is a doctrine of enslavement because its realization imposes the enslavement of several hundred thousand Arab Muslims to a handful of adventurers financed by Europeans and Americans. That is the truth." (La Voix du Tunisien, June 3, 1932, quoted by Cohen, 1990, 8)
Maghreb nationalists, particularly Tunisians, who had already organized themselves as a force of opposition to French colonial rule and in the trade union movement since the early 20th century, perceived Zionism not only as a colonial project in Palestine, but also as a potential threat to the community balance in Tunisia (Timoumi, 1982). This perception was reinforced by the ideological and political proximity between Zionism and the colonial powers. The events of August 1929 heightened their vigilance towards Zionist activity in Tunisia, which was supported by a flourishing Zionist Jewish press after the First World War (Cohen, 1990). Abdelaziz Thâalbi's participation in the World Islamic Congress in Jerusalem in December 1931, as well as the rise of a Tunisian nationalist press in Arabic and French, reflected an increasingly assertive stance against Zionism; a position based both on solidarity with the Palestinians and on the denunciation of Zionism as a form of colonialism (Ghoul, 1974). Demonstrations of support for the Palestinians and the cancellation of Zionist propaganda conferences, such as that of Fanny Weill in 1932 under pressure from nationalist activists of the Destour and Neo-Destour parties, illustrate this mobilization (Avrahami, 2016). They were part of a broader strategy of cultural and political resistance against all forms of colonialism, whether European or Zionist.
In 1948, several Tunisians traveled to Palestine to fight against the creation of the State of Israel alongside the Palestinians in the ranks of the Arab Liberation Army, composed of volunteers from several Arab countries and organized under the auspices of the Arab League. This commitment was part of a dynamic of solidarity, fueled by the rejection of colonialism and the rise of Arab nationalism (Khalidi, 1998). This war was seen in the Arab world as a founding moment of collective anti-colonial and pan-Arab consciousness.
Zionist activity in Tunisia, the creation of Israel in 1948, and the Nakba had the effect of deteriorating intercommunity relations and alienating a large number of Tunisian Jews from their Arab-Muslim environment (Timoumi, 1982). The challenge for Tunisian nationalists at that time was to dissuade the local Jewish elites from fully identifying with the French nation or the Zionist project by emphasizing the need for joint action against colonial domination (Allagui, 2016). Some of them, such as Elie Nataf, sided with Zionism or sought to emigrate, while others, such as Georges Adda and Albert Bessis, sought a political compromise, "adhered to communist and socialist ideology, whose principles of non-discrimination and struggle against imperialism allowed them to 'crystallize their own idea of nationalism'" (Ben Achour, 2017, 12). However, the space for peaceful coexistence was shrinking, gradually marginalizing Tunisian Jews from the nationalist program, which was predominantly Muslim in nature. Nevertheless, some nationalist leaders, such as Salah Ben Youssef, still attempted to call for unity against the French colonial enemy. In a speech in Djerba on November 9, 1955, in the presence of Jewish representatives, Ben Youssef criticized his "Jewish brothers" who were "going to the East" (meaning Israel) "for religious or sentimental reasons when the country needed their help." Nevertheless, he insisted to them that "the common enemy is the French colonizer."