ALGIERS: A reading event for a book titled “Jewish Algeria” was canceled on Saturday, the organizers told AFP, after critics said it was untimely amid the war in Gaza.
L’Arbre a dire, a bookshop in the capital Algiers that was set to hold the event discussing Algeria’s Jewish heritage, said it had to call it off without providing further details.
Its cancelation came days after an Islamist lawmaker, Zouhir Fares, said in a statement that the culture ministry was banning the reading following a formal plea.
There have been no official statements from the Algerian authorities on the book or reading events.
Fares also posted the letter in which he had called on authorities to take action, calling the book a form of “cultural normalization with Zionists.”
In the letter, he said the book’s foreword was written by “a citizen of the Zionist entity (Israel) who had served in its army not long ago,” referring to French author Valerie Zenatti.
An earlier book reading on Thursday in Tizi Ouzou, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Algiers, was also called off, Librairie Cheikh, the organizing bookstore, said on Facebook.
In an interview with Algerian newspaper Le Soir last February, the book’s author Hedia Bensahli said “Jewish Algeria” was a book about Algeria, and not about “what’s happening in other parts of the world.”
She said the book, spanning a history of over 2,000 years, had already been on sale when the Gaza war broke out last year.
“Like everyone else, I could not have foreseen the Hamas attacks on October 7, nor the bloody response of the Israeli army,” she said.
L’Arbre a dire said the book was no longer available in its collection but said authorities have not ordered its removal.
Algeria book reading on Jewish heritage canceled amid Gaza war
https://arab.news/z9vpz
Algeria book reading on Jewish heritage canceled amid Gaza war
- Its cancelation came days after an Islamist lawmaker, Zouhir Fares, said in a statement that the culture ministry was banning the reading following a formal plea
- Fares also posted the letter in which he had called on authorities to take action, calling the book a form of “cultural normalization with Zionists“
Dozen people entered Egypt from Gaza on first day of Rafah opening: source
- The reopening, demanded by the UN and aid groups, is a key part of the second phase of Trump’s truce plan for Gaza, where humanitarian conditions remain dire after two years of war
RAFAH: A handful of injured Palestinians and their companions entered Egypt from Gaza on Monday, the first day of a limited reopening of the Rafah border crossing, a source on the Egyptian side of the border told AFP.
“Five injured people and seven companions” crossed the border, the source said on Tuesday.
The reopening, demanded by the United Nations and aid groups, is a key part of the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s truce plan for Gaza, where humanitarian conditions remain dire after two years of war.
The number of patients allowed to enter Egypt through the crossing was limited to 50 on Monday, each accompanied by two companions, according to three officials at the Egyptian border.
An Egyptian health official told AFP on Monday that three ambulances had arrived with Palestinian patients who were screened upon arrival to determine which hospital to be taken to.
AlQahera News, citing Egypt’s health ministry, reported that 150 hospitals and 300 ambulances had been prepared to receive Palestinian patients.
It said 12,000 doctors and 30 rapid deployment teams had been allocated to work with those transferred.
The director of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, said there were 20,000 patients in the territory in urgent need of treatment, including 4,500 children.
There was no official announcement of the number of people who returned to Gaza via the crossing.
AFP images on Monday showed empty buses crossing back to Egypt after transporting Palestinians to Gaza earlier in the day.
The partial resumption of operations at the crossing comes after Israeli forces seized control of the gateway to Egypt in May 2024 during the war with Hamas.
Gaza’s civil defense reported dozens killed in a wave of Israeli strikes over the weekend, in what the military said was retaliation for Palestinian fighters exiting a tunnel in Rafah city.
Ali Shaath, the head of a Palestinian technocratic committee established to oversee the day-to-day governance of Gaza, said Rafah’s reopening offered a “window of hope” for the territory.
