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Algeria Bans French Educational Curriculum amid Worsening Disputes with Paris

The Algerian President with French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in Algeria on Oct. 10, 2022 (Algerian Presidency)
The Algerian President with French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in Algeria on Oct. 10, 2022 (Algerian Presidency)
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Algeria Bans French Educational Curriculum amid Worsening Disputes with Paris

The Algerian President with French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in Algeria on Oct. 10, 2022 (Algerian Presidency)
The Algerian President with French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in Algeria on Oct. 10, 2022 (Algerian Presidency)

Algeria’s Ministry of Education has warned more than 500 private schools against using the French curriculum, threatening to resort to the judiciary in the event of non-compliance with the decision, which comes in the context of the conflict between the two countries over the history of France’s colonial past in Algeria.

While the Algerian education law stipulates the application of the local curriculum only, an inspection conducted by the ministry highlighted a certain degree of non-compliance, as some schools adopt the French curriculum exclusively, to meet the demands of the parents, who hope to send their children to French universities in the future.

In parallel with this measure, which raises controversy among students and parents alike, the National Center for Distance Education announced that it will stop receiving registration requests for those wishing to sit the French baccalaureate exam, which is held in May of each year.

Pedagogy specialists have pointed to a number of problems faced by baccalaureate holders when they are forced to continue their education in French in many Algerian colleges and universities, in the fields of medicine, engineering, and various sciences.

According to observers, these government decisions reflect the intensifying conflict between the two countries over the history of French colonialism in Algeria. While the Algerians insist that France apologize for the crimes of the occupation, Paris categorically refuses to make such step.

Last year, the Algerian government introduced the teaching of English in the first educational cycle, in preparation for replacing the French language, which has been used as the official language of companies and government agencies since independence in 1962.

In 2021, several ministries started applying Arabic in all their internal correspondence and documents, prohibiting their staff from using a language other than Arabic. This came in response to statements by French President Emmanuel Macron in October 2021, in which he said that Algeria was not a nation before the French occupation in 1830.

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Israeli Troops, Palestinian Fighters Clash in West Bank after Incidents Near Settlements

Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
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Israeli Troops, Palestinian Fighters Clash in West Bank after Incidents Near Settlements

Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday as Israel pushed ahead with a military operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin.
Israeli troops searched areas around Jewish settlements after two separate security incidents on Friday evening. In Jenin itself, drones and helicopters circled overhead while the sound of sporadic firing could be heard in the city, said Reuters.
Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the West Bank in months.
The operation, which Israel says was mounted to block Iranian-backed militant groups from attacking its citizens, has drawn international calls for a halt.
At least 19 Palestinians, including armed fighters and civilians, have now been killed since it began. The Israeli military said on Saturday a soldier had been killed during the fighting in the West Bank.
The Israeli forces were battling Palestinian fighters from armed factions that have long had a strong presence in Jenin and the adjoining refugee camp, a densely populated township housing families driven from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of Israel.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday a child had been taken to hospital in Jenin with a bullet wound to the head.
The escalation in hostilities in the West Bank takes place as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas group still rages in the coastal Gaza Strip nearly 11 months since it began, and hostilities with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in the Israel-Lebanon border area have intensified.
Late on Friday, Israeli forces said two men were killed in separate incidents near Gush Etzion, a large West Bank settlement cluster located south of Jerusalem, that the military assessed were both attempted attacks on Israelis.
In the first, a car exploded at a petrol station in what the army said was an attempted car bombing attack. The military said a man was shot dead after he got out of the car and tried to attack soldiers.
In the second incident, a man was killed after the military said a car attempted to ram a security guard and infiltrate the Karmei Tzur settlement. The car was chased by security forces and crashed and an explosive device in it was detonated, the military said in a statement.
The two deaths were confirmed by Palestinian health authorities but they gave no details on how they died.
Troops combed the area following the two incidents. Security forces also carried out raids in the city of Hebron, where the two men came from.
Hamas praised what it called a "double heroic operation" in the West Bank. It said in a statement it was "a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation's aggression and targeting of our people and land continue".
The group, however, did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks.
Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said on Saturday Israel would step up defensive measures as well as offensive actions like the Jenin operation.
Amid the gunfire, armored bulldozers searching for roadside bombs have ploughed up large stretches of paved roads and water pipes have been damaged, leading to flooding in some areas.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that triggered the Gaza war, at least 660 Palestinian combatants and civilians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian tallies, some by Israeli troops and some by Jewish settlers who have carried out frequent attacks on Palestinian communities.
Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to militant factions in the West Bank - under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war - and the military has as a result cranked up its operations there.