Tunisia, "the Arab Schindler," was the first Arab nominated for the Israeli Righteous Among the Nations award. Post-War period and independence Between the end of World War II and the independence of Tunisia in March 1956, there was deep debate in the Tunisian Jewish community over Zionism. Anti-Jewish attacks in Hafsia in 1952 and conflict surrounding the independence struggle resulted in the first wave of emigration. Following independence, a mixed picture emerged. On the one hand President Habib Bourguiba was seen as having the most liberal policy toward Jews among the Arabic-speaking nations, even going so far as to apologize to Tunisia's chief rabbi after violent anti-Jewish rioting in 1967. However, anti-Jewish decrees such as the abolition of Tunisia's Jewish Community Council in 1958 and the destruction of synagogues, Jewish cemeteries and Jewish quarters prompted more than 40,000 Jews to leave Tunisia between 1956 and 1967. By 1970, the majority of Tunisia's Jewish population had left the country. Emigrating Tunisian Jews primarily went to either Israel or France. Arab Spring (post 2011) After the Tunisian Revolution, Ennahda became the leading political force in the country, elected as the largest party in the transitional government. The party's leader, Rashid Al-Ghannushi, sent a delegation to the Jews in Djerba, assuring them that they have nothing to worry about in a democratic Tunisia, where the Islamists would play a larger role. He even sent gifts to the Jewish nursing homes in Tunis. In November 2012, the community asked for the army's protection when a policeman was arrested after plotting to kidnap a young Jew for a ransom. In 2011, the Israeli cabinet announced that it had allocated funding to help Tunisian Jews move to Israel due to growing manifestations of anti-Jewish and the difficult economic situation. In January 2014, the Ennahda-led government voluntarily stepped aside and a transitional government, appointed to rule during the drafting of the new constitution until democratic elections would be held later in the year, took office. The new secular constitution for the first time explicitly protected not only freedom of religion, but freedom of conscience (freedom to become atheist, leave or change religions), and explicitly protected minorities such as Jews from official or unofficial discrimination. The new Tunisian constitution is the first of its kind in the Maghreb and the Arab world in embracing both Arabism and liberal secularism, and is seen as a model for other countries