In case you are wondering what the Algerian Kabyls have to do with this weblog the answer is that the Kabyls, like the Jews, are engaged in a parallel struggle for human and political rights. Nowhere is the affinity between these indigenous non-Arab groups clearer than in a talk given on 27 May at the French National Assembly by Ferhat Mehenni.
Ferhat Mehenni is a well-known singer in France and a spokesman for the movement for Kabyl autonomy. A year ago, his 19-year old son was stabbed to death in a Paris street by an Islamist who had mistaken him for Ferhat. The killer is still at large.
According to Ferhat Mehenni, a sector of Algerian and especially Kabyl society refuses to be taken in by the all-pervasive Jew-hatred put out daily by the Algerian media. This Jew-hatred is the instrument for a kind of political and intellectual state terrorism which it is very dangerous to oppose. Oppressed in the name of Arabo-islamism, the Kabyls have been known to try and draw international (and Israel's) sympathy for their cause by expressing support for the Jewish state.
In December 2001 Mehenni himself witnessed a demonstration in the Kabyl town of Tizi-Ouzou against the arrest of a few Kabyl activists. Some young demonstrators being filmed in front of the town hospital were shouting as one voice:"Djich, chaab, maa-ka Sharon!" - "the army and the people are with you, Sharon!"
A daring move in an 'Arab' country. If Israel is a useful scapegoat for the Arab masses, it is also an excellent Trojan Horse for legitimising Arab dictatorships. Israel is associated with the Kabyls in order to legitimise their repression and prevent their emancipation. The average Algerian now sees the Kabyls as the new Jews and Kabylia as another Israel. Mehenni's article (in French)
This is simple : A free man is raising his hand. Time to shake it.
ReplyDeleteDihya,
ReplyDeleteThe world often portrays Arab states as victims of such and such. They forget to mention that they are invaders and colonizers! Lately the Algerian president declared that the French colonization committed genocide with the Algerian identity blablabla…in other words, he criticizes the wrong doings of one colonizer (the French) and the well doing of another (which is the Arab-Islamic invasion!) The French colonization has made intellectuals and built the Algerian state. The arab-islamic invasion has made killers, thieves, and destroys the country’s legacies everyday.
Tamazgha is the Amazighs (Berber) country (territory form the Oasis of Siwa to the Canaries-Islands
It’s nation is the amazighs (Berbers) and it has her own amazigh flag
What we don’t have is an international recognition of that country, because our country is under Arab occupation.
Israel is one state that can understand our situation, and maybe someday recognize us as the one nation that understands its situation in the Middle East.
An amazigh woman.
It is very instructive to read what the Amazigh lady had to say in the previous post, and very heartening to see that another people instinctively understand Israel's predicament. I can only hope that she revisits this site and writes back to enable some of us to make contact with her.
ReplyDeleteIn a world which has become disoriented through distorted values, it seems that only those who threaten and/or use violence manage to achieve their aims.
It is a matter of great regret that so little is known of the Amazighs. An obvious way to reverse this situation would be to raise funds to endow a chair in Amazigh studies in a major Western or preferably an Israeli university, so that their plight can be studied and highlighted.
For any information concerning Berbers and Tuaregs - people of the Amazigh cuture of North Africa and the Sahara Desert - see web site for Tazzla Institute at URL http://www.tazzla.org
ReplyDeleteVisit the links which lists dozens of Amazigh web sites throughout the world.
Trying to contact anyone who was hidden in the Paris mosque during WWII, Jewish children especially (or anyone who knows of someone, or knows of a way to find someone, an organization that might help to locate someone, etc.), for a book on this incredible rescue effort by the Kabyl community.
ReplyDeleteDear anonymous
ReplyDeletePlease see post of 15 October 2006 about 'the Kabyl rescue effort'you refer to. The Kabyls' enormous contribution badly needs recognising. Try 'Enfants caches' in the first instance for your research. Good luck with your book.
Thanks a lot for this article
ReplyDeleteIndeed Amazigh-Berber- people are suffereing in their land. They are oppressed by Arabs and are forbidden to speak their language, adopt their names... etc.
Arabs are worse people I have ever seen. They have no pity, no respect , no manners... Israely people are not the only one to suffer. Amazigh people suffer also... let's unite agaist these suide bombers who have no respect for others' lives.
Most "Arabs" in North Africa are "genetically" berbers. Berber is just a matter of language and/or self-identification.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, the Berbers were close to the French colonial administration, which is why they have been disliked by the Arabs, nothing new there.
I have been noticing recently that the berber issue has been hijacked by the divide and rule merchants.
Amazigh people have been at the forefront in the struggle against colonial occupation. Be it in Algeria or Morroco. French colonial administration broke the amazigh resistance with the assistance of 'arabized' local groups to whom it handed power following the independence obtained
ReplyDeletethrough Amazigh sacrifices.
In Algeria, the architects of the Algerian resistance were overwhelmingly Amazigh speaking. They marshalled into their ranks christians and progressive europeans, jewish intellectuals and professionals. These leaders were to be betrayed or assassinated
by the agents of the arab league and nasserists.
Arabizatiion is of process of fascisation of society by means of religious endoctrination on the supposed divine qualities of anything arabic: language,culture,origins...
It is a virulent form of racism. Many endoctrinated north africans(falsely) claim to be arabs and show hatred towards anything amazigh(berber). This policy of hatred is sanctioned by the north african dictatorships. Schools are turned into mass endoctrination centres. I spare you what happens in mosques on a frequent basis.
Western democracies have a responsibility as ex-colonial powers who promoted and favored arabism and as the potential victims of the virulence of arabism within Europe and in the World. Europe must stop pandering to dictatorships and ignoring the isolated struggle of democratic forces against the might of arabo-islamist supported by the states and the petrodollars. Allowing visibility to the Amazigh dimension in Europe would significantly reduce the effects of arabism as publicised and legitimised by European agencies themselves. Democratic movements ,coptic, jewish, Kurdish,Amazigh,libanese ...must lend each other support and find a framework to establish a permanent basis of cooperation for common action in order to favor democratisation, freedom of expression, rejection of the policies of hatred and violence,...
"Democratic movements ,coptic, jewish, Kurdish,Amazigh,libanese ...must lend each other support and find a framework to establish a permanent basis of cooperation for common action"...am working on just such a project. Meeting in June in London. Please email me for further details.
ReplyDeleteBataween
There is already The Amazigh-Israeli Friendship Association in Morocco. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XROAu1cTcQ8 I hope we will continue building bridges with those who suffering from Arab-Islamist until we have a free Morocco and Algeria. Now the world is starting to see and experience the agression of Arabs/Islamist which we (Amazigh) already know. Arabs are the most intolerant people I've met, they are full of hate and agression and always use Palestina as an excuus for everything. While we (Amazigh) are being kolonized by Arabs for decades. Amazigh in Morocco will never give up.
ReplyDeleteWe need to roll back the Arabist carpet. I see Arabism and Zionism as two heads of the same rusty coin. I am a Jew and have a certain degree of loosely Zionist sympathies, and can understand a certain degree of Arabism.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I see both ideologies as dividing us from one another and alienating us from ourselves. We must open up a space to build a common solidarity for us on the south and east coasts of the mediterranean. We must allow the peaceful, liberal, democratic existence of our peoples in a diverse plural conversation. I don't oppose Arabs or Israel, but oppose how we currently relate to one another through a false dichotomy with only two monolithic identity options. We need room for Kabyls, Maronites, Copts, Druze, Sefardim, Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Melchites, Arabs, Israelis, etc.
I have an idea for the Levantine region of Lebanon and Israel with possible extension to Syria, Palestine and Jordan. It doesn't really apply to Kabyle of the Maghreb, but it is in the same spirit:
http://thinkism.googlepages.com/levantism
I call it Levantinism.
levantinism(at)yahoo.com
I am an Algerian Kabyle and I can honestly say that my views on who I am cannot be represented by a singer like Ferhat Mehenni. He has his own agenda and should from now on speak for himself or his retard friends.
ReplyDeleteWho knows, maybe he can even explain why some of the most Muslim fanatics in Algeria happen to be Kabyle.
What you fail to mention is that most of the journalists and those in power in Algeria are Kabyle.
ReplyDeleteTo me it looks like this is a Berber issue that only Berbers can sort out amongst themselves.
The Amazigh youth need to be wary of plans whose secrets and meanings they may not understand. They need to know that the Zionist entity has descended in force on the Amazigh ethnicity, in order to ignite civil strife in our countries.
ReplyDeleteSomeone please explain to me why is it that the Islamist groups have taken refuge in the Kabylie region east of Algiers?
ReplyDeleteOne would assume that they have lots more sympathizers amongst kabyles than they do elsewhere.
To our friend who's asking why the Islamic terrorists in Algeria have taken refuge in the Berber mountains of Algeria, I'll give you the answer my friend. This is a diabolical plan by the Algerian regime and most specifically the pseudo-president Bouteflika - who happen to be a virulent anti-Berber prick!!- to terrorise the Berber people and stop them from raising against the regime. All revolts in Algeria are started by Berbers - whether during French colonial rule or after the Arabs confiscated power in 1962 - and hence the "exporting" of Islamic terrorists to the Berber mountains to terrorise the people there.
ReplyDeleteDo not fall to their trap: in all of Algeria, Kabylia is the only region that is staunchly anti-Islamists. We are Muslims but we are secular people and we refuse the mixing of religion with politics. The biggest Islamic party in Algeria -FIS- received only 4% -probably the Arab minority living in Kabylia - in the 1990-1991 elections. The Kabyles are the first ones to take up arms against fanatical Islamist terrorits and all Berber parties are secular. Islamists receive no sympathy from Kabyles, we view this war as a war between the regime and the Islamists and the lesser of these two evils we have the better. Let them fight it out between themselves, this is a fight by two Arab clans - one military, one Islamist - for power, Berbers have absolutely nothing to do with this war!!
Kabyle people needs freedom,politico- islamisme lost its place in North africa, we need help from all other the word against this regims, I been to tel aviv many times I love this country , I ma kabyle my hope and wishes to see our country as this great country where arabs can learn thier language in the schols but kabyle people still suffring from this regime I agree with who said arabs are intoleronts and they don't show respects to others I lived with them all my life
ReplyDeletecheck following web sites:
ReplyDeletewww.kabylei.eu
www.tamurt.info
makabylie.info
check also the book by J.honigmann (Quest for Justice)
There is enough written in the internet about the kabyles, but be careful! there also are misleading infos.
Roughly, the Kabyles are just fed up with the arabo-islamic and totalitarian regime. Kabyles did a lot for Algeria, and they have been betrayed all along. Now, it is more than enough. The rest of Algeria does not sympathize with the Kabyles. On the contrary, they follow the bloody arabo-islamic regime. At last, we would like to have our own land where we could live undependant of religion and dictatorship.
A Kabyle man.
P.S: Israel and Kabylia can understand each other, since they are living the same injustice.
And, yes, they could support each other. Especially that the world leaders are more concentrated on profit than human values and rights.
Thanks Ywen for the website addresses, one of these days, I will put them in the sidebar of this blog.
ReplyDeleteI am moved by your expressions of sympathy with Jewish people and do believe that the only way forward is if minorities unite against majority oppression.
one more important link:
ReplyDeletewww.north-of-africa.com
The Kabyle Wills
ReplyDeleteThrough the foundation of a self-ruled Kabyle State
By
Dr. Dahmane At Ali.
dahmen_at_ali@hotmail.it
Associated Professor, University of Pisa, Italy.
see the link : see in : http://www.tamurt.info/the-kabyle-wills,377.html?lang=en
Dr. Dahmane At Ali,
dahmen_at_ali@hotmail.it
University of Pisa, Italy.
Pisa, 10th April, 2010
see in : http://www.tamurt.info/the-kabyle-wills,377.html?lang=en
thanks for the link..very interesting!
ReplyDeleteAmazigh people will fight for their rights until their end, no matter what! if the arabs kills us all now, our kids will stand up one day and will get the right of their ancestors, it is just a matter of time. The Amazigh cause is not dying, but getting stronger and stronger.
ReplyDeleteThe Amazigh/Berber Handicrafts is one of the most beautiful in the world, have a look at their products on www.BerberoSaharan.com
Obviously the person who wrote this article knows nothing about the Kabylie region, knows even less about the kabyle people.
ReplyDeleteThe analysis here is very simplistic.
Ferhat Mehenni's popularity is really minimal. The kabyle region is known for being algerian patriots... Does anyone remember what happened during the events of the World Cup qualifiers... All algerian regions cam out as one man with Algerian Flags. If the population is really following this opportunistic Ferhat, why raise the Algerian flag ?
Arabic culture is a a savage culture. Kabylia will free itself from the savages! (arabs). in 2016 Millions of Kabylians went to the street to request the freedom of Kabylia from the savages (arabs). Kabylia was independent before France created Algeria. Arabic have no respect for minorities, their cultures is the opposite of Kabylian culture. We respect women and life they hate women and love destruction and terrorism. We Kabylian all support MAK and GPK (Kabylian Government with Ferhat Mhenni as President). Some arabs write comments and they present themselves as Kabylian ! ..It is a pure lie and every Kabylia vomit anything related to Arabs. I am one of them and my wife and kids and brothers and sisters..as we say in Kabylian language ..Asa Azaka the Lakvayale anili!
ReplyDelete