Algeria’s Ambassador Returns to Paris after 3-Month Dispute

Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country. (Getty Images)
Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country. (Getty Images)
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Algeria’s Ambassador Returns to Paris after 3-Month Dispute

Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country. (Getty Images)
Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country. (Getty Images)

Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country.

The move was announced by Algeria's presidency.

In October, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune recalled ambassador Mohamed Antar Daoud, citing alleged “irresponsible comments” by French President Emmanuel Macron about Algeria’ s pre-colonial history and post-colonial system of government.

Algeria also refused permission for France to fly military planes in its airspace, and accused Paris of “genocide” during the colonial era.

Last month, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian sought to defuse tension by paying a visit to Algiers. The countries agreed to resume cooperation toward peace in Libya and on other international issues.

At the time, Le Drian noted the countries’ “complex history” and said he wanted to “remove misunderstandings.”

Algeria gained independence after a brutal six-year war from 1954 to 1962, following more than a century under French colonial rule.

The countries in recent years have had close economic and cultural ties, but relations took a sharp turn for the worse after France sharply curtailed visas for people from North Africa because governments there were refusing to take back migrants refused asylum in France.



Israel Demolishes Seven Palestinian Homes in East Jerusalem

A picture shows a view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex (top L) across from the Arab town of Silwan on the hill with its al-Bustan neighborhood (C) in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex (top L) across from the Arab town of Silwan on the hill with its al-Bustan neighborhood (C) in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel Demolishes Seven Palestinian Homes in East Jerusalem

A picture shows a view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex (top L) across from the Arab town of Silwan on the hill with its al-Bustan neighborhood (C) in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex (top L) across from the Arab town of Silwan on the hill with its al-Bustan neighborhood (C) in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on November 5, 2024. (AFP)

Municipal workers began demolishing seven homes in occupied east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood on Tuesday, Palestinian residents and the municipality said, after an Israeli court called their construction illegal.

"This morning the Jerusalem Municipality, with a security escort from the Israel police, began its enforcement against illegal buildings in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan," Jerusalem's Israeli-controlled city hall said in a statement.

Activist Fakhri Abu Diab, one of those affected by the demolition, confirmed that "at least seven homes have been demolished, and the operation is ongoing".

He said that both houses and apartments were affected.

"They demolished my home, which I had renovated after it was previously demolished earlier this year, as well as my son's house, Haitham Ayed's family home, and four homes belonging to the Al-Ruwaidi family," Abu Diab told AFP.

He said around "40 people, including children, were affected by the demolitions in the neighborhood, leaving them homeless".

An AFP photographer saw at least four bulldozers operating on Tuesday at demolition sites in the neighborhood under tight Israeli police supervision.

In a statement, Jerusalem city hall pointed to court orders that call for the demolition of the buildings due to zoning laws that make them illegal.

However, Palestinian residents and activists accuse the municipality of concealing its true intentions.

"The buildings, like most of the buildings in the neighborhood, are located on an area that is a green designation, that is, an open public area and where there is no possibility for zoning," the municipality said, adding that the area would become a green zone instead.

Abu Diab said the true aim of the demolitions was "to reduce the percentage of Arabs and alter the demographic composition of Jerusalem in favor of (Israeli) settlers", connecting them to west Jerusalem.

Israel "is above international law, has escaped accountability, and is exploiting global focus on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and the US elections", he said.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.

Some 230,000 Israeli settlers live in east Jerusalem, according to the United Nations. Another 3,000 live in Palestinian neighborhoods within east Jerusalem's boundaries, according to Israeli rights organization Peace Now.