PARIS, March 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A Tunisian opposition leader warned the government on Saturday, March 5, of a “public uprising” if it did not retract an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to attend an IT summit in November.

“I call on the Tunisian authorities to immediately swallow its invitation to war criminal Sharon,” Sheikh Rashed Al-Ghanoushi, leader of the banned Islamic Renaissance movement, told IslamOnline.net over the phone from his London exile.

The government said earlier that about 100 government leaders including the Israeli premier were invited to the UN-backed World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis.

Ghanoushi stressed that the Tunisian people are boiling over the planned visit by hawkish Sharon.

“They stand on the verge of a sweeping public uprising,” he said, asserting that their position on the controversial visit “is echoed by all opposition powers” in the country.

“The government,” Ghanoushi added, “is inviting a man who is responsible for the [1982] Sabra and Shatila massacre and the killing of Egyptian prisoners.”

The opposition leader also accused Sharon of having “Tunisian blood on his hand,” referring to a 1985 raid by Israeli F-16 and F-15 warplanes on the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Tunis, which killed Palestinians and Tunisians.

By inviting Sharon, he said, the government is twisting the knife in the heart of the Palestinian cause.

“It seems as if the government is courting the Zionists to ease internal and external pressures on issues such as [presidential] legitimacy, freedom of expression and the arrest of up to 500 political prisoners,’” Ghanoushi said.

The International Freedom of Expression Exchange, which campaigns for press freedom, last week accused Tunisia of censorship and torture and said that the country was not a suitable host for the November summit.

Sharon’s planned trip to Tunisia would mark the first visit by an Israeli leader to that north African country, the longtime home of the PLO.

Tunisian police are, meanwhile, vigilant to any gossip or gatherings critical of the controversial visit.

“It appears as if authorities had imposed an undeclared curfew across the country,” Tunisian sources told IOL.

“Security personnel, dressed in civvies, disperse any group suspected of talking politics in the main streets and have evacuated public cafes, usually frequented by students and government critics.”

Police further cordoned off the headquarters of trade unions, political parties and mosques, according to the Tunisian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“An anti-Sharon mass meeting has been cancelled after police forces surrounded the meeting venue and placed the grand Al-Fatah mosque under close scrutiny.

“They even imposed an undeclared house arrest on many lawyers and anti-Sharon politicians.”

Lawyer Mohammad Abu was arrested Tuesday, March 1, on charge of inciting violence.

His colleague and rights activist Radia Al-Nasrawi said the arrest came after her lambasted the government for inviting Sharon, infamous across the Arab world for desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque in 2000, triggering an ongoing Palestinian Intifada.

On Friday, March 5, tens of angry Tunisians protesting Sharon’s visit were injured in clashes with policemen, who tried to disperse the mass rally.

They cordoned off the main Habib Bourguiba street in the capital and denied people access.

“Tunisia tested emergency laws on Friday after police had used excessive force to disperse the protesters,” Nasrawi, who took part in the rally and sustained head injuries, told the Doha-based Al-Jazeera news channel.

Last week, ten opposition parties and human rights groups said the visit would bring “lasting shame” on the country.

They pledged to stage rallies and demonstrations at university campuses, party headquarters, and possibly to organize a general strike with the support of trade unions.