Algerian Diaspora Celebrates Its New Born in Paris

The former MEP of Algerian origin, Karim Zeribi, announced on Friday, March 8, the establishment of the World Council of Algerian Diaspora, with a mission that aims to fill the void left by the “Friendliness of Algerians in Europe,” which disappeared at the end of the 1980s after the country entered a new phase of party pluralism.

According to the founder of this council, Karim Zeribi, the goal behind its creation is to contribute to the development of Algeria by “creating a global network for expatriates and collecting Algerian skills spread throughout the world, and developing a digital guide in the name of these competencies to put them on the path to supporting Algeria in embodying progress and prosperity.”

In his speech at the opening ceremony, which started with a magnificent clip showing the beauty of Algeria, recalling its multiple sociological and economic potentials, in a Parisian hotel, Karim Zaribi said that the idea of establishing the World Council for Algerian Diaspora dates back to two weeks ago in Algiers, during a TV program with the representative of the diaspora, Mohamed Hani, where he first launched it, addressing the Algerian attendees, including ordinary citizens, businessmen, CEOs and local elected officials in France”.

Immediately after independence, the Algerians established the Friendliness of Algerians in Europe. They assigned its presidency to the syndicalist and activist, Mohamed Lebjaoui, a member of the first National Council of the Algerian Revolution. He also served as a member of the National Liberation Front Federation in France, a body that played a major role in defending the interests of the Algerian community in Europe and France in particular, it also worked to link them to their motherland and not let them dissolve in their country of residence.

However, Algeria entered an atmosphere of multi-party pluralism at the end of the eighties of the last century, the “Friendlinness” disappeared as it was a mass organization affiliated with one party at the time, the National Liberation Front, due to the partisan tensions that targeted it at that time, which led to its dispersal and complete extinction, which made Algerians of the diaspora lose an influential collective body that protected them from the racism embedded in the bureaucracy of the French state in particular, and even in fulfilling their interests, especially those related to finding cemeteries for Algerians in countries of residence and transporting the bodies for burial in the motherland. It also helped them reduce transportation costs towards their motherland in the summer and on holidays.

Before announcing the establishment of this body, Karim Zeribi was strongly present in the French mediatic scene, defending the rights of the Algerian and Muslim community in general, confronting the extreme right and its fellow outliers, some of whom went so far as to demand the expulsion of Muslims on the pretext of their incompatibility with French society. This phenomenon emerged crudely before, during and after the issuance of the decision to ban girls from wearing the “abaya” in French schools, a decision that removed the mask from France’s ugly face in its rejection of the other, despite its marketing of the values of freedom, fraternity and equality as purely French values.

Among the reasons that led to the creation of this informal body was the creation of a legal framework that could defend the interests of Muslim communities in Western countries. Zeribi explained; “We have come to feel in the West that we are intruders, and we can no longer tolerate controversy over Islam and immigration. Air has become unbreathable), revealing the council’s intention to create an integrated centre to help entrepreneurs and launch an investment fund to help them invest in Algeria.

March 8, 2024, marked the birth of the World Council of the Algerian Diaspora at the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris in front of an assembly of more than 400 people from the four corners of the world in response to the call launched weeks ago.

After a long plea for the gathering of positive Algerian forces, Karim Zeribi recalled the origin of this council and the idea of which was born around a television program in Algiers.

A minute of silence in solidarity with the Palestinian people was followed by a communion which the assembly joined with great emotion.

From the outset, Karim Zeribi gave the main guidelines of the council, its objectives and its methods. Mainly: contributing to the development of Algeria by all means and all channels. Round tables followed with themes around the council’s objectives: creating a global diaspora network through a digital directory, organizing major events where Algerians meet, creating a counter in Algiers and Paris which would receive projects and forward them to experts, aid funds, etc. Two projects were presented during the evening, that of a cardiological clinic currently being completed in Tipaza and that of an eco-tourist complex in Djanet (southern Algeria).