Benjamin Stora Attacks Boualem Sansal’s Claims

Benjamin Stora, one of the most prominent French historians known for their specialization in Algerian-French relations, made a shocking response to Boualem Sansal’s allegations about Algeria’s territorial integrity, which even the most famous Moroccan propagandists have not said.

Benjamin Stora admitted for the first time that the work of the Algerian-French joint commission to study the memory file has stopped.

In a TV program on the French channel 5 under the title “France-Algeria: The Endless War”, Benjamin Stora commented on Boualem Sansal’s words: “I want to say a word about what he said about western Algeria (Sansal had claimed that Oran, Tlemcen and Mascara were part of Morocco before the French occupation). Sansal forgot two historical events in western Algeria that should not be forgotten.”

“We must not forget that Mascara was the capital of the Algerian resistance led by Emir Abdelkader in the early years of the French occupation. Emir Abdelkader is a national hero for the Algerians. Emir Abdelkader is from Mascara. Then we say this is nothing. What Boualem Sansal said is completely abnormal,” Stora added.

Benjamin Stora did not stop at this resounding slap but added another no less painful than the previous one to the alleged writer Sansal, who turned out to be either ignorant of the details of the history of the country of martyrs, or a malicious misleader who deliberately provides false information to the public opinion in France, which knows a lot about the history of Algeria.

Stora explained; “I will add something else. The father of the Algerian national movement, Messali Hadj, where was he born? He was born in Tlemcen, which is near the border with Morocco. And Messali Hadj is who he is. He was the one who spread the national spirit that eventually led to independence. Then we say this is unimportant. This is abnormal. What Sansal said hurts Algerian national sentiment.”

The most famous historian in France, Benjamin Stora, has worked for forty years on Algerian-French relations, so his words are a living testimony condemning the lies and deception of Boualem Sansal, and even a strong condemnation of this alleged writer, who lost his honour as an intellectual by promoting false information about the history of Algeria, to serve of the Moroccan regime and the French far right.

Stora also gave a lesson in pride and manliness to Boualem Sansal, in an incident he said he was recounting for the first time, even though it happened to him in the 1990s. The historian said: “In 1995, I was forced to leave France to live in Vietnam for several years with my family, with the help of the French embassy in Hanoi and French special services, because I was threatened with death. (The host asked him by whom?) He replied: By the Islamists. But I did not publish a book that day, but rather continued my research work on memory because the future generations need to know the historical truth, which remains very important and fundamental.”

In another context, the head of the Algerian-French joint commission to study the memory file from the French side, Benjamin Stora, acknowledged that the work of this commission, which has worked for a long time on this file and has made great strides in investigating the period of the French occupation of Algeria during the nineteenth century, has stopped. Stora said: “Unfortunately, the work of the joint commission has stopped,” and attributed the reason to the political differences that erupted between Algiers and Paris.

The French historian was referring to the diplomatic crisis that erupted between the two countries last summer, following the decision of French President Emmanuel Macron to support the Moroccan regime’s autonomy plan in Western Sahara, a decision that prompted the Algerian authorities to withdraw their ambassador from Paris and reduce their representation to the level of chargé d’affaires.

Previously, Echorouk reported, citing its sources, that the Algerian side decided to stop coordination with France regarding the memory file, i.e. preventing the Algerian part of the commission from meeting with its French counterpart, which was confirmed by the days, as the last meeting in this regard dates back to last May.

On that day, July was set as the date for the next meeting, but the Algerian authorities’ knowledge of the French position on the Western Sahara issue before it was officially announced, prompted them to take a firm decision to stop communicating with France through all diplomatic, political, economic, and cultural channels, and the memory file as well.