Algeria
Throughout 1996 violence between government forces and militant Islamists
including supporters of the Front islamique du salut (FIS, Islamic Salvation
Front) escalated in Algeria. Since 1992, when the electoral process was
suspended to prevent a probable victory by the FIS, an estimated 60,000
people have been killed.
Following the assassination of President Muhammad Boudiaf by Islamists in
June 1992, the FIS was outlawed and Algeria was ruled by a military council
until 1994 when the former minister of defence, Brigadier-General Liamine
Zeroual, was appointed as president. In 1995 Zeroual was elected to a five-year
term and in May 1996 he announced plans to hold legislative elections early
in 1997. In November several opposition parties expressed support for constitutional
reforms proposed by the government. These reforms would permit the president
to issue decrees and prohibit all Islamist parties.
Attempts to establish a national dialogue between government and opposition
forces proved incapable of stemming the violence. Throughout 1996 Islamists
continued to attack military targets as well as local and foreign civilians,
including academics, journalists and other professionals. Among the most
serious incidents was the massacre by Islamists of villagers suspected of
harbouring government-backed militias. Also notable was the increase in
the number of abductions, rapes and murder of young women accused of failing
to observe the strict Islamic dress code. Furthermore, in 1996 the Groupe
islamique armée (GIA, Armed Islamic Group) (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS,
MOVEMENTS) also claimed responsibility for the spate of bombings in Paris.
The continual violence in Algeria has clearly had a devastating effect on
all sectors of the economy, not least by inhibiting foreign investment.
Unemployment, which reached an estimated 40 per cent, and inflation, at
over 30 per cent, exacerbated social unrest in 1996.
During the nineteenth century, traditional Christian antisemitism was
introduced into parts of the Muslim world, including Algeria, by European
clerics and missionaries. At the same time, Jews received favoured treatment
from the French colonists and, despite Muslim resentment, soon seized the
new economic opportunities.
Following the 1894 Dreyfus affair, the leading French antisemite Edouard
Drumont was elected as the representative for Algiers. Although the antisemitic
movement of the time was short-lived in Algeria, Nazi propaganda in the
1940s caused its resurgence. Under the Vichy regime, Jews were treated with
contempt by the French authorities, who applied the antisemitic Vichy laws
in all their severity.
After Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, most of the country's
140,000 Jews emigrated. Algerian Jews, almost universally gallicized, were
viewed by Muslims not only as Zionists, and therefore enemies of Arab national
aspirations, but also as Europeans. Jews were also resented for their economic
success and the privileges they had enjoyed under French rule. In 1960,
during anti-French riots, the Great Synagogue of Algiers was destroyed.
Jewish areas were attacked repeatedly and synagogues and cemeteries were
desecrated. Large-scale emigration followed. The 1967 Six-Day War led to
further looting, attacks and desecrations.
In recent years, Islamist opposition forces have frequently combined antisemitic,
anti-Zionist and anti-western rhetoric. During the 1991 Gulf War, the use
of antisemitic slogans was particularly evident. In January 1991, for example,
Ali Belhadj, a leader of the FIS, led a demonstration in support of Iraq,
proclaiming: "We are here to drink the blood of the Jews."
Islamist groups have repeatedly warned foreign workers and business-owners to leave the country. In 1996 the abduction and killing of foreign tourists and workers prompted many international companies to evacuate staff and dependents. The kidnapping and murder of seven French Trappist monks in March and the killing of the French Bishop of Oran in August led the French government to urge all French citizens, including approximately 300 monks and nuns, to leave Algeria immediately.
The GIA, which rivals the FIS, is primarily responsible for the murder of foreigners in Algeria. Since 1994 it has issued statements calling for the elimination of all Jews and Christians from Algeria.
Antisemitic literature, including Arabic translations of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , continued to circulate in Algeria.
Although Jews are not the primary target of Algerian Islamists, antisemitism
emerges in the context of deep hostility to the West, and to France and
the USA in particular. The continuing violence between militant Islamists
and government forces has increased the vulnerability of the few remaining
Jews in Algeria.
© JPR 1997