Algeria maintains ban on pro-Palestine marches

Algeria is the only country on earth whose regime brags about supporting Palestinians while at the same time banning sit-ins and popular marches in support of the Palestinian people.

Last Friday, the regime banned protesters from taking to the streets of Algiers to denounce the Israeli war machine and its war crimes in Gaza.

Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Algerian authorities have only allowed a single march, which they organized themselves, and during which anti-Moroccan slogans were chanted.

In neighboring Morocco, whose diplomatic ties with Israel are often targeted by the Algerian regime, pro-Palestinian marches bring together hundreds of thousands in different cities wherein citizens gather and disperse in peace.

Amid a failing economy and soaring inflation, the Algerian regime fears that pro-Palestinian marches could offer a chance for the masses to re-occupy streets and call for political reform.

The specter of the 2019 Hirak protests which ended the rule of former president Bouteflika is haunting the recycled military regime in Algiers.

Festivals were banned last summer- under the pretext of solidarity with Palestine- in order to prevent gathering that could derail into protests over deteriorating social and economic conditions in the country.

The ban has exposed the Algerian regime use of the Palestinian cause as a rhetorical tool for political mobilization with no acts on the ground to support the Palestinian people or at least let the people express solidarity.

Anti-war activists can protest freely against Netanyahu’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv but they cannot do so in Algiers. The dire truth.