Algerian Streets Empty but Protesters Vow to 'Keep Flame Burning'

Algerians called off street protests for first time in more than a year. (AFP)
Algerians called off street protests for first time in more than a year. (AFP)
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Algerian Streets Empty but Protesters Vow to 'Keep Flame Burning'

Algerians called off street protests for first time in more than a year. (AFP)
Algerians called off street protests for first time in more than a year. (AFP)

The coronavirus pandemic has done what the Algerian regime had failed to achieve for more than a year -- clear the streets of massive anti-government protests.

Now the "Hirak" citizens movement -- which brought down geriatric president Abdelaziz Bouteflika last April -- has vowed to adapt and reinvent its struggle for full civil rights and democracy.

"We will be back stronger than before," vowed independent journalist Khaled Drareni, who has been arrested several times for covering the demonstrations, on Twitter.

"This is an opportunity to go beyond the marches."

In a flurry of ideas being floated on the internet, activists have proposed a "virtual" Hirak on the web, or mass demonstrations held on balconies, reported AFP.

"Many proposals are being circulated on this subject -- staying completely off the streets on Fridays, a (pot-banging) casserole protest, intensifying social media communications ... all while keeping hope of resuming protest marches as soon as possible," said political scientist Mohamed Hennad.

"It is crucial that the flame of Hirak keeps on burning."

For now, a major focus has been to harness the mass movement to help combat the pandemic threat and plug the gaps of the public health care system.

The North African country by Monday had 201 confirmed infections and reported 17 deaths. Many medical professionals fear the already strained hospitals will soon be overwhelmed.

Hirak's role should be one of "solidarity and, if need be, national mobilization against corona," said Said Salhi of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights.

"We can set up solidarity, relief, aid, education groups," he wrote.

‘Health the top priority’

The Hirak movement erupted on February 22 last year and scored a spectacular success when, within weeks, it forced the ouster of Bouteflika, now aged 83.

Bouteflika had announced plans to run for a fifth term after 20 years in power, despite being debilitated by a 2013 stroke.

The emboldened demonstrators stayed on the streets, demanded the dismantling of the wider power structure Bouteflika had built, which they decried as a self-serving and corrupt state.

A December election that installed one-time Bouteflika premier Abdelmadjid Tebboune in the presidency was marred by more protests and very low turnout of around 40 percent, according to official data.

Since then the Friday rallies of the non-violent and leaderless Hirak movement continued -- until last week.

As the virus has swept the world, the government banned demonstrations last Tuesday. But the protesters didn't need to be told and independently suspended rallies on public health grounds.

An initial claim made the rounds on social media that the virus was a regime plot to end Hirak -- but this was soon dismissed by most protesters.

"Requesting a suspension of Hirak is not treason", wrote journalist Akram Belkaid in the Quotidien d'Oran daily newspaper. "It is to recognize that in life, there are priorities -- the first being people's health."

‘Anger will come back’

The decision by the protesters to suspend their rallies "revealed a maturity and political consciousness," said Louisa Dris-Ait Hamadouche, a political scientist at the University of Algiers.

"This self-accountability signifies that Hirak is a citizen movement engaged in a process of building a new order, rather than just tackling the old order."

President Tebboune, meanwhile, faces huge political risk in the event of a botched response to the outbreak, said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a historian at the Sciences Po university in Paris.

"Tebboune draws for now an unprecedented prestige as a head of state acting to forestall the crisis," said Filiu.

But "he risks paying very dearly for possible failures in the public response to the pandemic -- failures which, as soon as they come, could rejuvenate the protest movement."

Yamina Rahou, a researcher at Oran's Centre of Research and Social Anthropology, agreed that "the coronavirus will not kill Hirak but will lay bare the problems in our country's health sector".

The protest movement, she said, "lacks neither ingenuity nor intelligence. They will find other forms of expressing themselves and carry out other actions".

Belkaid, the journalist, wrote that as the coronavirus has temporarily ended the protests, "the regime rubs its hands like an undertaker anticipating a rise in business.

"But it alone is counting on the end of Hirak. What it does not know is that anger will come back and it will be much stronger."



Frustration, Gaza Alarm Drove Macron to Go It Alone on Palestine Recognition

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace, on September 21, 2018 in Paris. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (L) welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace, on September 21, 2018 in Paris. (AFP)
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Frustration, Gaza Alarm Drove Macron to Go It Alone on Palestine Recognition

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace, on September 21, 2018 in Paris. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (L) welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace, on September 21, 2018 in Paris. (AFP)

President Emmanuel Macron's announcement that France would become the first Western member of the United Nations Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state in September has caused diplomatic ructions from the Middle East through Europe to Washington.

But it did not come out of the blue.

When Macron visited the Egyptian town of Al-Arish on the border with Gaza in April, he was struck by the mounting humanitarian crisis and made clear on his return home that Paris would soon opt for recognition.

Working with Saudi Arabia, Macron came up with a plan to have France plus G7 allies Britain and Canada recognize Palestinian statehood, while pushing Arab states to adopt a softer stance towards Israel through a United Nations conference. But despite weeks of talks, he failed to get others on board.

Three diplomats said London did not want to face the wrath of the United States, and Ottawa took a similar stance, leaving Macron to go it alone.

"It became increasingly apparent that we could not wait to get partners on board," said a French diplomat, adding France will work to get more states on board ahead of conference on a two-state solution in September.

Domestically Macron was under rising pressure to do something amid widespread anger at the harrowing images coming out of Gaza. Although with both Europe's biggest Muslim and Jewish communities and a polarized political landscape, there was no obvious course of action that would satisfy all sides.

Israel and its staunch supporter the United States have blasted France's move, branding it a reward for the Palestinian group Hamas, which ran Gaza and whose attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 triggered the current war.

Macron had discussed the matter extensively with both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in advance.

Trump said on Friday that France's decision didn't "carry any weight" but added Macron was "a good guy".

CONFERENCE PLAN

French officials previously considered an announcement at a conference scheduled for June at the United Nations, co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, to sketch out a roadmap to a viable Palestinian state while also ensuring Israel’s security.

But the conference was postponed amid intense US diplomatic pressure and after Israeli air strikes on Iran.

Macron's announcement on Thursday is linked to a rescheduled and rejigged version of the UN conference, now planned to take place Monday and Tuesday.

That meeting will be at ministerial level, but Paris decided it would hold a second event with heads of state and government on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September, where Macron will announce formal recognition.

Some analysts say Macron has used the carrot of recognition to extract concessions from Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority which is a moderate rival to Hamas, and other regional players.

"Macron here is acting as a catalyst to get the Palestinians to deliver on the needed reforms, to get the Arabs to deliver on a stabilization force and the disarming of Hamas," said Rym Momtaz, editor-in-chief of the Strategic Europe blog run by the Carnegie Europe think tank.

Others say while recognition has symbolic value, there will still be no functioning Palestinian state whenever the war in Gaza comes to an end.

"Recognition by a European heavyweight like France is indicative of the rising frustration with Israel's intransigent policies," said Amjad Iraqi, senior analyst at International Crisis Group.

"What's the point of recognizing a state if they're doing little to stop it from turning into ruins?"

French officials point to months of intense Israeli lobbying to try to prevent Macron's move - and Netanyahu's fierce criticism of it - as evidence that it matters a lot to Israeli leaders.

Sources familiar with the matter say Israel's warnings to France had ranged from scaling back intelligence-sharing to complicating Paris' regional initiatives - even hinting at possible annexation of parts of the West Bank.

But French officials concluded that Netanyahu would do whatever he thought was in his interests in the West Bank anyway, regardless of what France did on recognition.

Israel's parliament voted on Wednesday in favor of a non-binding declaration urging the government to apply Israeli law to the West Bank, widely seen as a de facto annexation of the territory. That added to the urgency in Paris.

"If there is a moment in history to recognize a Palestinian state, even if it's just symbolic, then I would say that moment has probably come," said a senior French official.