Algeria Calls French Colonization a Crime, West Stunned by Historical Memory
The 'news' from Al Jazeera that Algeria's parliament unanimously declared French colonization a crime raises an eyebrow, not because it's untrue (ask any Algerian), but because so many Western capitals act as if such pronouncements are radical. One might recall France's brutal war of independence against Algeria, from 1954 to 1962, when an estimated 1.5 million Algerians died. But hey, historical
memory is tricky when you’re busy debating whether to send more weapons to your current colonial-adjacent allies, isn't it? While Algeria is busy asserting its historical narrative, certain Western governments continue to label resistance to occupation as 'terrorism,' while providing billions in military aid to regimes engaging in what many international legal scholars consider war crimes. How
many 'declarations' will it take for the West to acknowledge inconvenient truths about their own allies' actions, or indeed, their own past, with the same clarity Algeria shows?