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#Post#: 24527--------------------------------------------------
Re: French Colonialism in Algiers
By: algeria Date: December 19, 2023, 8:40 pm
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HTML https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/11/israel-should-learn-from-french-mistakes-in-algeria
Israel should learn from French mistakes in Algeria
[quote]
An estimated 134,000 Algerians fought with the Allies and 18,000
of them gave their lives to defeat Germany. And so, on May
8,1945, in Setif, a city east of Algiers, some 5000 “moslems”,
as Algerians were called by the colonial power to erase their
national identity, marched in celebration. But they also marched
clamouring for the end of over a century-long French colonial
rule over their country. French police seized banners and
eventually opened fire, killing demonstrators. Clashes erupted
with 102 French settlers killed.
In the following fortnight, a blood frenzy overtook French
authorities and settlers who massacred some 45,000 Algerians.
Rural areas around Setif and the town of Guelma believed to be
sympathetic to Algerian nationalists were bombarded by the
French air force. Settlers avenged their compatriots by hunting
down and lynching “the savages”.
To establish themselves in Algeria and legitimise their presence
there, the colonists had dehumanised the indigenous population
to the extent of perceiving them as nothing more than vermin.
This allowed French colonists and their occupation army to kill
Algerians in their thousands, with little or no moral qualms.
The Setif massacre brought the colonial power another nine years
of relative peace but in the end, it only served to harden the
Algerian resolve to be free. On November 1, 1954, they embarked
on their ultimate war of resistance against French occupation.
After eight years of “a savage war of peace” as British
historian Alistair Horne put it, Algeria won its independence
but at a heavy price: The war claimed the lives of some 1.5
million Algerians; some 20 percent of Algeria’s “Moslems”.
What is happening in Palestine today, predominately in Gaza but
also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is of course not
identical to the events that marked the end of French rule in
Algeria. Yet there are many similarities between them, as the
modus operandi of most colonial enterprises follows a set
pattern.
Colonisers dehumanise indigenous populations to keep them pliant
and to justify the use of brutal force against them when they
try to resist their subjugation.
They ensure that the colonised are powerless militarily
acknowledge that they cannot sustain their position
indefinitely, they intensify their brutality to preserve the
status quo for as long as possible. This is what happened in
occupied Algeria in the latter years of French rule, and this is
what we are witnessing in occupied Palestine today.
When France responded to the killing of 102 settlers by
carpet-bombing villages and killing tens of thousands of people,
it was hoping to achieve much more than avenging the deaths of
its citizens and eliminating “terrorists”. It was using extreme
violence to eliminate all native resistance. It wanted to break
their will to resist.
Today, Israel is following a similar trajectory. It is now
apparent that the goal of Israel’s war on Gaza is not to avenge
hundreds of Israeli civilians and military personnel killed on
October 7.
Israel’s leaders undoubtedly know that even if their military
could somehow eliminate all “terrorists” in Gaza, it would not
be able to eliminate Palestinian aspirations for liberty and
resolve to resist the occupation in every way possible.
Israel is executing a multifaceted plan to protect, entrench and
expand its colonial enterprise.
It goes something like this: First, break Palestinian will and
spirit. Show them that Israel can do as it pleases, with total
impunity, and in full view of an impotent world. That no matter
how much violence and humiliation they experience, neither
fellow Arabs nor the so-called international community would
come to the rescue.
When France was working through its own bloody plan to maintain
its occupation in Algeria, then US President John F Kennedy made
one such intervention. He clearly voiced his belief that French
rule over Algeria was not sustainable in the long term,
condemned colonialism, and openly rooted for Algeria’s
independence. In the end, the US’s principled stance on the
issue during the Kennedy era played an important role in the
success of Algeria’s liberation struggle.
Kennedy was open about his support for Algerian independence
even before becoming president.
In July 1957, as a young Senator, he delivered a historic speech
criticising the Eisenhower administration’s political and
military support for French colonialism and called on the US to
support Algerian self-determination.
“The most powerful single force in the world today is neither
communism nor capitalism, neither the H-bomb nor the guided
missile – it is man’s eternal desire to be free and
independent,” he said. “Thus the single most important test of
American foreign policy today is how we meet the challenge of
imperialism, what we do to further man’s desire to be free.”
He went on to explain how the French insistence to rule over
Algeria, against the will of the Algerian people, is harming the
US, NATO and the entire global community, and concluded that
“[t]he time has come for the United States to face the harsh
realities of the situation and to fulfill its responsibilities
as the leader of the free world – in the UN, in NATO, in the
administration of our aid programs and in the exercise of our
diplomacy – in shaping a course toward political independence
for Algeria”.
Kennedy knew France was fighting a war it can never win, and
wanted the US to be honest with its ally. Today, the history is
repeating itself. A leading US ally, Israel, is engaged in a war
it cannot win against a people suffering under its occupation.
[/quote]
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