Two days after the attack on the synagogue in La Grande Motte, the profile of the suspect raises questions. This 33-year-old Algerian, who has been in France for several years and is legally resident, was carrying a Palestinian flag at the time of his attack. For “Marianne”, Xavier Driencourt, former French ambassador to Algeria, discusses the consequences of such an event for our country and its relations with Algiers.
This Saturday, August 24, an arson attack targeted the synagogue of La Grande Motte, in Hérault. The suspect is a 33-year-old Algerian, present in France for several years, in a legal situation, who was carrying a Palestinian flag at the time of his act. After a police officer was injured at the time of the attack, this event serves as a reminder of the danger surrounding the Jewish community in France since October 7. Analysis of the situation with Xavier Driencourt, former French ambassador to Algeria.
Marianne : The suspect arrested after the synagogue fire in La Grande Motte is an Algerian with legal status. Are there any precedents?
Xavier Driencourt : In the past, there have been attacks carried out by Algerians, or Franco-Algerians. Going back a long way, during the war of independence, the National Liberation Front (FLN) organized attacks in France to destabilize the colonial power and draw attention to the Algerian cause. A little later, in the 1990s, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) struck. We remember in particular the attack on the RER B at the Saint-Michel station in Paris on July 25, 1995, which left eight dead and more than a hundred injured. More recently, Mohammed Merah committed an anti-Semitic crime by murdering six people of Jewish faith in 2012.
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What is different with the suspect from La Grande Motte is that he is in a regular situation and has been in France for several years. This risks relaunching the question of regular immigration from Algeria to France. The other important thing is the target chosen. An attack against a synagogue, in the current context, that means something.
Is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict also causing anti-Semitism to rise in Algeria?
Without a doubt. It must be remembered that before independence, there was a very large Jewish community in Algeria. It had been assimilated into the French by the Crémieux decree in 1870 and left in 1962, at the time of independence. Anti-Semitism in Algeria today is linked to opposition to the State of Israel, which is one of the vectors of Algerian foreign policy. Anti-Zionism and “anti-Israel” have “democratized” anti-Semitism even though the Jewish community was large in the country, which is paradoxical.
Today, Hatred of Israel and Defense of the Palestinians [l’Algérie est l’un des pays qui porte le plus la cause palestinienne dans les pays arabes] blur the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, the two notions being often linked. The investigation will tell, but I would not be surprised if the suspect in the attack at La Grande Motte was raised in Algeria with this Algerian culture of anti-Zionism, even anti-Semitism.
Will this episode further strain relations between France and Algeria, even though they have not been optimal recently?
What is obvious is that the two countries are going through a complicated phase since France recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. But I still believe that their relations will continue. They are lasting and linked by very strong elements.
I believe that this event could put the issue of regular Algerian immigration back on the table. The Franco-Algerian agreement of December 27, 1968, which governs the status of Algerians living in France and gives them specific and more favorable rights than those of other foreigners in France, could be discussed again. Regular immigration is facilitated by the agreement and some, for several years now, have wanted to call it into question.
Have you observed any particular reactions in Algeria?
The reaction that struck me the most was a completely crazy article published yesterday by an Algerian newspaper, Patriotic Algeria. It is a media considered to be conspiratorial, founded by the son of the general and former Minister of Defense, Khaled Nezzar, a submarine of the Algerian army. It is a newspaper that has a large audience in Algerian military and extreme circles. Already, everything is in the title: “Synagogue burned “by an Algerian”: a ridiculous scenario of the French services”. The article begins thus: ” The French services have accustomed us to their Jarnac tricks as childish as those of their Moroccan friends whose leaders they regularly decorate. »
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We can read thereafter that the attack was a set-up by the DGSE and that Algeria had nothing to do with it. It is not innocent at all thatPatriotic Algeria treats this information with this bias and this means that a part of the opinion in Algeria is on this line. The anti-Semitic-anti-Zionist movement is strong and conveyed by a certain number of media including this one, the others having been closed by the power, the press being well muzzled in Algeria.
