Photograph of Paris’s Pont Saint-Michel, 1961. The graffiti reads, “Here we drown Algerians.”
In a piece picked up everywhere from the Chicago Tribune to the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Associated Press called the November 13 ISIS attacks in Paris “the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II.” The Atlantic concurred with that description for the horrific attacks that killed 130 people, calling them “the worst violence on French soil since World War II, and the worst in Europe since 2004 when coordinated blasts on Madrid’s commuter train system killed 191 people.”
It does no dishonor to those killed in Paris last month to acknowledge that at least 200 people were killed in that city on October 17, 1961. It was nearly seven years into the war for Algeria’s independence from French colonial rule, and some 30,000 Muslims demonstrated in central Paris against a curfew imposed solely on Muslims. They were met by a police force led by prefect Maurice Papon, who would later be charged with crimes against humanity for his collaborationist role in the World War II Vichy government.
In a 1997 story for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (3/97), reporter James Napoli cited contemporary reports of demonstrators clubbed, beaten, strangled and pushed into the Seine, of dead Algerians piled like cordwood. The French government covered up the massacre for years; official claims were that two, or perhaps five, people had been killed. Only in 2001 was a plaque erected to acknowledge the “numerous Algerians killed during the bloody suppression of a peaceful demonstration.”
Media needn’t worry that people wouldn’t care about the recent attacks without the superlatives, and though much can no doubt be attributed to lack of historical knowledge and laziness, they still missed a meaningful opportunity—to shed light on a hidden history and connect the present with the past.
Janine Jackson is the program director of FAIR and the host of CounterSpin.
Isn’t “a lack of historical knowledge” contingent on a lack of historical reporting?
To this day, trying to figure out how many algerians were killed on that day is the source of much discussion among historians. But they generally agree it was around 110, i.e. less than the November 1 attacks.
Not so fast on the laziness conclusion. Missed opportunity? Not inherently implausible but I doubt it. Demonization of muslim populations in the interest of imperialism was the same then as it is today. The connection is too glaring to preemptively suppose that it was overlooked.
Yet another pathetic and desperate effort to minimize Islamic terrorism.
However, see my next entry – plaudits for FAIR
BREAKING NEWS – FAIR VINDICATED ON IRAN!!
In article after article, FAIR has asserted that Iran should be taken at its word that it has no interest in developing nuclear weapons (and certainly not after 2003). In a 9/30/13 article, e.g., FAIR quoted Ahmadinejad, who said in 2006 that Iran is “against the atomic bomb” and that its “activities are for peaceful purposes.” In 2008, Ahmadinejad reiterated, “We don’t believe in a nuclear bomb.”
Now the IAEA has just released its final assessment, which concludes that Iran continued nuclear weapons research until at least 2009, including computer modelling of a nuclear explosive device. Further, the IAEA confirms Iran’s lack of cooperation in providing information to the IAEA, including its cover-up at the Parchin site starting in 2012.
OOPS – MY MISTAKE – FAIR WAS NOT VINDICATED. ACTUALLY FAIR HAS YET AGAIN BEEN REVEALED AS A SHAMELESS APOLOGIST FOR THE THEOCRATIC FASCIST STATE OF IRAN.
All across the world the colonial occupation continues in varying degrees, but in Palestine it remains egregious as Israelis, primarily subscribing to Judaism, impose their illegal occupation on Palestinians, mostly Muslims, despite numerous United Nations’ resolutions prohibiting that reality. Even though Nelson Mandela declared Israel’s imposition of Apartheid in Palestine the same blacks suffered in South Africa, Apartheid still flourishes and Netanyahu vows it will continue as long as he is prime minister. The United States could suspend the 3.5 billion in military aid it lavishes on Israel yearly to end the immoral occupation and Apartheid, no movement in that direction has been entertained by congressional members that receive huge campaign contributions from AIPAC or organizations that pander to the theocracy controlling Palestine and headed by Netanyahu.
Great reporting Janine. What hypocrisy on Willy’s part with respect to the nuclear issue and Iran. Whatever Iran’s transgressions, and they are widely described even by top US intelligence agencies as minimal if existent at all, they pall in comparison to the US and its bosom buddy Israel. Iran is a signatory to the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, as is the US, but not Israel. The US is out of compliance of its responsibilities in the treaty to build down its nuclear arsenal toward its complete elimination. Instead the US is building a “new generation” of nuclear weapons. Israel is widely known to have hundreds of nuclear weapons. Iran is, to all ostensible proofs, in compliance with its responsibilities under the NPT. Every effort to have the Middle East declared a nuclear-weapon-free zone has been stymied by the US and Israel. The United States overthrows a democratically elected president of Iran in 1953, installs in his stead a dictator, and then Willy has the hubris to cry repressive theocratic state today. The US conducts nuclear side deals with other non-signatories to the NPT, like India. And the US provides multi-billions of dollars of weapons to enemies of Iran, like Israel and Saudi Arabia, one of if not, the most repressive government on the planet.
All across the world the colonial occupation continues in varying degrees, but in Palestine it remains egregious as Israelis, primarily subscribing to Judaism, impose their illegal occupation on Palestinians, mostly Muslims, despite numerous United Nations’ resolutions prohibiting that reality. Even though Nelson Mandela declared Israel’s imposition of Apartheid in Palestine the same blacks suffered in South Africa, Apartheid still flourishes and Netanyahu vows it will continue as long as he is prime minister. The United States could suspend the 3.5 billion in military aid it lavishes on Israel yearly to end the immoral occupation and Apartheid, but no movement in that direction has been entertained by congressional members that receive huge campaign contributions from AIPAC or organizations that pander to the theocracy controlling Palestine and headed by Netanyahu.
It would be helpful to provide footnotes for non-trivial claims. It it really true that “at least 200” were killed? There do exist somewhat lower estimates, ones that would place the number killed below that of the paris attacks. So the answer to “was it the worst massacre” in France may be: “we don’t know”.
Reducing poverty — A far cry from ending the slavery of inequality
Chavez reduced poverty by 50%, established socialized medicine for all and created the finest education in all of the Americans. So big deal, the educated upper half of society still hoards all the wealth. A nothing deal actually, as it reduced the wealth of the greed driven upper half by not ever 1%.
More to the point, Chavez did nothing to cause wealth to trickle down to the laboring-class, as wealth is the property you own above what is needed to stay alive, a big zero for the lower half of Venezuela as they are the impoverished who have never been anything but impoverished.
For until morality comes to humanity, democracy will always be ruled by the most wealthy 51%, as their excessive wealth give’s them the most motivation to vote and to get involved in politics.
So, the perfect solution is a law that guarantees to the lower half the right to own at least one-forth of the wealth — in a nation that has the largest oil reserves on earth.
For when the upper half thinks it deserves more then three-fourths of the land and wealth, surely a slave you mentality is their highest priority.
So what you’re saying, Janine, is that the Paris attacks by Muslims — by ISIS — were retaliation for something that happened to Muslims in Paris back in 1961?
no, what she’s saying is that reporters are either too ignorant to remember that other massacres have happened, or are covering it up for their own purposes.
which one of those would you place yourself in, pitchguest?
thank you Jeanine: I was thinking I was the only one thinking this smelled of false flag shinanigans. The main media is so scripted with govt propaganda any more that one almost has to take the opposite view to get close to the truth
Excellent point Janine. Too bad our media elite are slightly less familiar with recent history as, say, your average house cat might be familiar with advanced calculus.