A pro-Palestinian protest in Algiers, Thursday 19 October [photo credit: Yasmine Marouf-Araibi]
In neighbouring Algeria, historically one of the strongest supporters
of the PLO, marches in favour of the Palestinians have drawn smaller
crowds than during the vast Hirak protest movement four years ago. A
majority of the protesters appear to be women and younger people with
few Islamist party banners on display. A march on 19 October was
officially sponsored and organised but many older Algerians appeared to
have stayed away, fearful of the police ever since the brutal crushing
of the Hirak which on some week-ends had brought millions of people into
the streets in favour of democracy and against a regime many of them
view as illegitimate.
The many demonstrations in Tunisia have so far passed off without
major incident, with people expressing their anger and pain at the
relentless bombing campaign inflicted on Gaza and the lack of rights
afforded the Palestinians. Uncharacteristically, President Kais Saied
has kept a low profile.
In all three countries, the prompt support European leaders have
given Israel and their apparent lack of concern for the thousands of
Palestinian civilians already killed or wounded has simply reinforced a
conviction that the EU “is a past master at double standards” as one
Moroccan puts it. There is deep anger at the way in which European
countries have seemingly obliterated Palestine from their narrative.
The credibility of the EU in general and France in particular lies in
tatters with people fearful of rising Islamophobia in France, where
millions of citizens of Maghrebi origin live. The strongly pro-Israeli
coverage of the French media has brought together Moroccan and Algerian
elites despite the state of virtual cold war between the two countries.
Irrespective of class or country, North Africans are very worried about
the possible repercussions in France. Thankfully, to date, in Paris and
its immediate suburbs, notably Sarcelles which boasts large Muslim and
Jewish communities, the manifest will to live and let live has
prevailed.
The only French politician who finds grace in the eyes of North
Africa is the former prime minister Dominique de Villepin who on 12
October on France Inter
bemoaned the West’s “amnesia …that considered imagining that this
Palestinian question would be able to fade away in the face of an
economic, strategic and diplomatic agreement, as a substitute for this
tragedy."
Commenting on President Biden’s warning
to Israeli leaders not to overreact to the initial Hamas attack, one
senior Algerian remarked that contrary to 9/11 after which support for
the US was widespread at all levels of Western society and in Russia,
“today there is no great popular show of support for Israel in the
West.” And among the people of North Africa, as opposed to the
leadership, whatever incidental good will Israel may have had has burnt
away in the ongoing saturation bombing campaign and the looming land
invasion of Gaza.