A group of Algerian intellectuals is launching a petition against the untruths contained in Benjamin Stora’s report about Emir Abdelkader, founder of the Algerian state, handed over to French President Emmanuel Macron.
No to the misappropriation of the name and prestige of Emir Abdelkader by the French State perjury. No to any statue of our Emir on the land where he was held hostage.
The French state has perjured the armistice signed by General Lamoricière and Emir Abdelkader. He hijacked the boat that was supposed to take him to Palestine, on the basis of this armistice, and took him hostage with his family and retinues. By proposing to erect a statue to him, the report commissioned by the French state reproduces the same crime of embezzlement, this time targeting the aura and prestige of the Emir.
The Emir is not an idle heritage. It belongs to our country, to our people and to all the peoples who resisted colonial enterprises. It also belongs to all those who have contributed to the struggle of these peoples, whatever their lands and nationalities of origin, including French ones.
We consider as an act of friendship with our people any tribute to the Emir, emanating from the peoples, including the French people, via educational networks, associations, cultural groups, municipalities. But we oppose this attempt to new misappropriation of our symbol and our heritage by a French state whose actions towards Algeria still have colonial overtones.
We, the signatories of this petition, we rise in the firmest and most determined way to deny this State to play again with the high figure of our Emir.We call in the most energetic way to our own State to to position clearly against this neocolonial maneuver and to use all its weight to refuse this additional crime against our national memory.
We ask our compatriots to sign this petition on a massive scale to give it strength and chances of success.
