The headquarters of the Tunisian Association to Support Minorities, also known as Minorités, was attacked on Tuesday, January 8.

Yamina Thabet, president of Minorités, accused the Leagues for the Protection of the Revolution in the northern Tunis suburbs of Le Kram and La Goulette of orchestrating the attack in an interview yesterday with Tunisian radio Mosaique FM.

Thabet said in the interview that she arrived at the office located in the northern suburb of Carthage Byrsa at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday when she noticed that the office’s door was broken and that the printer, computer, fax, and scanner were all missing. She then reported the intrusion and theft to the local police.

“I have advanced suggestions of suspects, but it will be up to the police to decide whether the report will be filed against one in particular or an unknown one,” Thabet told Tunisia Live.

The police station in Carthage was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

Nevertheless, Thabet remains certain about the perpetrator’s identity. “I personally know who [is responsible] – the Leagues for the Protection of the Revolution in Le Kram and La Goulette,”  she asserted to Mosaique FM.

The League for Protection of the Revolution’s page on Facebook started a hateful campaign against the association on Monday, Thabet told Tunisia Live.  She alleged a connection between the attack and a recent event called “Illusions, Suffering, and Resistance,” which was organized by Minorités on December 29 to discuss Tunisia under German occupation during World War II.

The event featured historians, who spoke about the extradition of Jewish Tunisians during that time period. It was not appreciated by a number of League members in Le Kram and La Goulette, Thabet said, and they subsequently launched a virtual campaign accusing Minorités of supporting normalization of relations with Israel. Tunisia Live could not find anti-Minorités posts on the League’s Facebook page, but Thabet stressed that they had been deleted.

According to her, the campaign also criticized Minorités for maintaining political links with the Nidaa Tounes opposition party due to photos of Thabet with Nidaa Tounes leader Beji Caid Essebsi. The association was subject to threats and insults, she said.

President of Minorités Yamina Thabet (Photo credit: Minorités‘ Facebook page)

According to Thabet, during the week following the commemoration of the extradition of Tunisian Jews, neighborhood residents reported that the League’s members from the area were interrogating locals about the state of security in the headquarters.

“I assume responsibility for my words,” she said to Tunisia Live.

The League for the Protection of the Revolution denied that there exists tension between the two entities. The attack was likely caused by thugs and used to defame the League, said the press attaché from the League’s Tunis board, Makrem Tagini, who is known in social media by his alias, Sami Bouffon.

“We have no relation – far or close – with the Minorités association,” said Tagini, who said he heard about Minorités for the first time from Tunisia Live.

“The League for the Protection of the Revolution deplores and condemns the attacks [Minorités] was subject to, and we are against all violence,” Tagini asserted.