After the Tunisian president naturalized and exempted dozens of Palestinians, the widow of Al-Qassami was disappointed and feared deportation.

Tunisian President Qais Said signed an order granting 153 foreigners - 34 of them Palestinians - to Tunisian citizenship, while the widow of Muhammad al-Zawari (engineer of the drones in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas"), was absent from the list, despite submitting an application since Years.

According to the official Tunisian News Agency, quoting an official source in the presidency, if the president granted Tunisian citizenship to a group of Palestinians who have been living for years in Tunisia; "It comes within the framework of the President's keenness to support the Palestinian cause, and does not affect the file of the right of return for the Palestinians."

The widow of Zouari, Magda Khaled Saleh, who holds Syrian citizenship - expressed her disappointment that her name was not included in the list of Tunisian nationals, despite meeting the legal requirements, and despite the promises she received from politicians and deputies to settle her matter after the assassination of her husband by the Israeli Mossad on December 15 December 2016 in Sfax Governorate (southern Tunisia).

Magda said that in 2012 her late husband had applied to the official authorities in Tunisia, specifically the Ministry of Justice, to grant her Tunisian citizenship, adding that she had not received any response, and renewed her request on January 5, 2017 after her husband's assassination.

Muhammad Zouari, a resident of the city of Sfax, is an icon of the struggle against the Zionist entity after his secret engagement with the Qassam Brigades, and his success in penetrating the Israeli defense system by making "Ababil" aircraft.

His assassination file remains in front of his home by Israeli Mossad agents, through a careful intelligence operation; A mystery was not revealed by the Tunisian judicial authorities, while his lawyers and his family demanded that the case be internationalized.

In a military statement, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades previously called al-Zawari, describing it as a "Qassamid leader", confirming his involvement in the ranks of the armed resistance for more than 10 years.

At the time, she said, he was “one of the leaders who supervised the draft Kabel Kassameh planes,” which had a role in the “eaten storm” war with Israel in 2014.

It also directly accused the Israeli Mossad of assassinating him and vowed revenge against him.

Posted by Riyad Ansar on Monday, 6 July 2020

Appeal to the president and
appealed to the widow of Zouari, the President of the Republic, Qais Saeed, to consider her legal status and the conditions of her unstable residence in Tunisia, and to enjoy her obtaining Tunisian citizenship, especially since she now holds a refugee card from the Refugee Affairs Organization, and the validity of her residency does not exceed one year on Tunisian soil.

And Magda expressed her fears of being deported at any moment, and her travel to Syria, in light of the failure to settle the status of her residence permanently, and the close security monitoring of her, which has become her concern.

Chapter 20 of the Tunisian “Nationality Magazine” gives the right to naturalization to foreigners after spending 5 years of residence in Tunisia, while this condition is excluded, according to Chapter 21 of the same magazine, the person who proved that his original nationality was Tunisian nationality, and the foreigner married to Tunisian if the couple resided in Tunisia While submitting the application.

It also excludes from the conditions mentioned in Chapter 20 the foreigner who performed great services for Tunisia, or whose naturalization of Tunisian citizenship would be of great benefit to Tunisia.

A call to remedy.
Lawyer and executive director of the Observatory for Rights and Freedoms Marouane Jeddah was surprised to exclude the widow of Zouari from the list of Tunisian nationals, especially since she desperately needs her, and given the symbolism that her late husband has in the hearts of Tunisians and all Arabs, and his role in supporting the Palestinian cause.

Marwan called on President Saeed to rectify the matter, and not to bow to external pressure, especially since he was known for his victory in the Palestinian cause, and for his support for the legitimacy of the resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Tunisian parliamentarian Rashid El-Khayari previously pursued the Zouari case, and had a major role in enabling his widow in 2019 to obtain a temporary residence card.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Al-Khayari called on the president to grant Mrs. Magda the Tunisian nationality as a tribute to the spirit of her husband, the Qassamid leader, saying that "it is a shame for us as Tunisians and the President of the Republic must remain the martyr's widow deprived of a legal and moral right."

Activists and political and intellectual figures interacted with granting the Tunisian president citizenship to hundreds of foreigners, including Palestinians, while others were surprised to exclude Zawari’s widow despite the president’s victory for the Palestinian cause in all his statements, and he described normalization with the Zionist entity as a “great betrayal”.

The researcher in communication science and political analyst Rida Al-Shakandali asked in his post if the granting of Palestinian citizenship to the Tunisian serves the issue or is it compatible with the desire of the Zionist entity to drop the right of return?