Over a thousand protesters, among them many women and children, demonstrated last Saturday night in the center of Tunis to demand an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, chanting “stop the genocide” on Earth Day.

This day commemorates the six Arabs who were killed in 1976, as they demonstrated against the confiscation of their lands by Israel.

“Stop the genocide”, “down with France, the USA and the Zionists”, “expel the ambassadors of the countries that are accomplices in the genocide”, chanted the demonstrators as they took part in a march on a central avenue of the Tunisian capital.

The confederation of trade unions UGTT (adjacent to the Tunisian left) and other organizations, such as the “Tunisian Network of Opposition to Normalization” (art. of Tunisia-Israel relations) invited to this demonstration.

“The Tunisian people are a free people, not in normalization,” chanted other protesters, many of whom wore Palestinian headscarves or waved Palestinian flags.

The march took place under the gaze of passers-by from the center of Tunis, a short time after the breaking of the Ramadan fast.

Many citizens of Tunisia, the country that hosted Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1982 to 1994, strongly support the Palestinian cause.

In October and November, thousands of Tunisians demonstrated in support of the Palestinians, while President Qais Sageant, who says he belongs to the current of pan-Arabism, denounces the “unacceptable situation” in the Gaza Strip.

The head of state has described any normalization of relations with Israel as “utter treason”, while categorically rejecting accusations of anti-Semitism. In November, the Tunisian parliament began considering a draft law that would prohibit any normalization of Tunisian-Israeli relations.