In June 1952, Bahi Ladgham, a close confidant of Habib Bourguiba, met with Gideon Rafael seeking support for Tunisian independence.

Later that year, Tsur met with the Tunisian finance minister, who sought Israel's assistance in building cooperative agricultural settlements.

[2] Operation Wooden Leg was an attack on October 1, 1985 by Israel on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Hammam al-Shatt in response to the murder of 3 Israeli citizens in Cyprus.

As a byproduct of the Madrid Conference of 1991, Tunisia and Israel established low-level diplomatic relations culminating in opening an "Interest Section" in each other’s countries in 1996.

[1] Tunisia claims it played a major role in secret talks between the PLO and Israel which led to the Oslo I Accord, signed in September 1993.

Salah Masawi, director general of the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that he saw no obstacle to establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.