Tunisian students demonstrate against Israel's presence at IT summit

Thousands of Tunisian students inside several universities demonstrated in protest of the participation of an Israeli delegation in the Information Technology Summit to be held in their country on November 16 to 18.

Students sources said that thousands of students at the faculty of letters and the press institute as well as the faculty of law in Tunisia and the universities of Sousa, Safaqis, observed strike over study and organized sit in deploring the visit of the Israeli delegation to Tunisia.

The sources explained that the demonstrators at the press institute in Manouba quarters raised slogans deploring "normalization with the Zionist enemy" and others saying "Zionists and Americans are not welcomed."

The sources added that more than 2000 students demonstrated in the faculty of law and economic sciences in the capital and raised Palestinian, Iraq and Tunisian flags chanting in the names of Arab unity and death to "the killers: Bush and Sharon."

No clashes was recorded with the security forces and the riot fighting men confined to monitoring the acts of protests from a distance.

However, the Tunisian authorities which have fears of the escalation of these acts of protests decided to give a vacation for all students in the faculties and institutes as from Tuesday.

The Tunisian opposition had vowed to obstruct the likely visit by the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon since it was decided to invite him to attend this summit to which are invited all members of the UN.

So far, it was announced that the Israeli delegation is headed by the Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom who was born in Tunisia.