Tunisia's PM condemned for 'friendly chit-chat' with Israeli president at COP27

The friendly chit-chat between Tunisia's PM and Israel's president at COP27 has caused quite a stir in the North African state where anti-normalisation feelings still reign supreme.

On Monday, Tunisia's prime minister Najla Bouden was caught on camera smiling and nodding to Israel's President Isaac Herzog as the two officials engaged in a short conversation while posing for the group photo of world leaders at COP27 in Egypt. The video went viral on Tuesday.

Boumden's friendliness to Herzog, who is widely seen in Tunisia as a leader of an illegitimate apartheid state that Tunis does not recognise nor support publicly, have angered several activists and organisation, including BDS Tunisia.

"This friendly conversation between Najla Boden [and Israeli President] is the most shameful thing authorities did in the last decade as they repudiate the Tunisian people's firm position on the Palestinian right," said Tunisia BDS in a press statement late on Tuesday.

رئيسة الحكومة التونسية نجلاء بودن تتبادل الحديث مع رئيس إسرائيل وتبتسم له في قمة المناخ بشرم الشيخ #تطبيع #تونس #فلسطين pic.twitter.com/N4C0J3UmIZ

— Wejdene Bouabdallah (@tounsiahourra) November 9, 2022

Tunisia's campaign to boycott and oppose normalisation (BDS) also said it is no longer surprised by such scenes, "after the exposure of the hypocrisy of Kais Saied's speech and the fall of the fig leaf from his technocratic government subjected to colonial dictates."

Israeli news website Israel Hayom had previously claimed that Tunisia and Israel had opened diplomatic communication channels to bring the two countries closer.

In June, the Tunisian foreign ministry denied "rumours circulating in the media" that diplomatic communication was underway between Tunisia and Israel, with the foreign ministry emphasising that "Tunisia is not interested in establishing diplomatic ties with an occupying entity".

In the first official reaction to Bouden's "smiley normalisation", Nasr al-Din al-Nusabi, Tunisia’s Minister of Employment and official spokesman for the government said he "did not see a picture of the prime minister talking with the Israeli president."

"I actually did not see it [the video of Prime Minister Najla Boden with the Israeli president]. We will first verify the issue and then we will interact, but I did not see the picture and therefore I cannot comment," added the Tunisian official answering reporters' questions on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the office of the Israeli President explained that Herzog turned to the leaders standing next to him and introduced himself, "as custom dictated."

"As for the Prime Minister of Tunisia and the Prime Minister of Lebanon, who were standing nearby, when the leaders introduced themselves to each other, it was tacitly understood that they could not talk. That was the whole conversation between the three leaders," added the press statement published on Tuesday.

For years, Tunisia's parliament has toyed with criminalising normalisation with Israel. 

After the triumph of Saied in the 2019 election, many expected the president who chanted during his campaign ‘normalisation is high treason’ to pass the law finally. He did not.