A musical in Tunisia has been cancelled after its participants expressed their support for Israel.
On Monday, Tunisian actor Selim Baccouche cancelled his musical "Nouraniet" that was scheduled to perform at the Carthage International Festival, according to an AFP report. While the organizers of the festival said that the show had been cancelled because Baccouche was "indisposed", it is believed that the show was cancelled because Mohsen Cherif, Baccouche’s co-star in the show, had been criticized for supporting Israel.
Previously, a video that was posted to social networking site Facebook showed Cherif during a concert for Israelis of Tunisian origin. While he was performing, Cherif shouted support for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and shouted: "Long live Netanyahu! Long live Bibi!"
After the video was posted, thousands of web surfers became angry and demanded that the musical be cancelled. Some went so far as to accuse Cherif of being a traitor and calling for him to be stripped of his Tunisian citizenship.
An online campaign consisting of several Facebook groups began. The groups called to boycott Cherif’s concerts and to ban him from appearing on state-run TV and privately-owned satellite channels. One such group, called “Together to revoke the citizenship of Mohsen Cherif”, has attracted more than 27,000 members.
Cherif responded to the outrage by stating on his website that he did not know who Netanyahu is and that he was just performing in a concert. He added that the issue was blown out of proportion.
At the same time, Baccouche himself has been the target of criticism after a video showed him and other Tunisian artists performing for Israelis at a concert during a pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, in the south of Tunisia.
Baccouche defended the video and said he was responding to a demand by a public for whom all Tunisian artists, without exception, perform each year. He added that he does not understand why the video appeared one week before his show.