Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria
Joshua Cole
Abstract
This book explores the history of an anti-Jewish riot in 1934 in t Constantine, French Algeria, in which 25 Jews and 3 Muslims died. Understood at the time as the result of long-standing tensions between Muslims and Jews in North Africa, the riot was closely related to contemporary debates about reforming the colonial regime in Algeria. These debates divided the population and their political representatives, leaving Constantine vulnerable to acts of provocation by French nationalist extremists who appear to have been responsible for the majority of the murders. Although the police and some lo ... More
This book explores the history of an anti-Jewish riot in 1934 in t Constantine, French Algeria, in which 25 Jews and 3 Muslims died. Understood at the time as the result of long-standing tensions between Muslims and Jews in North Africa, the riot was closely related to contemporary debates about reforming the colonial regime in Algeria. These debates divided the population and their political representatives, leaving Constantine vulnerable to acts of provocation by French nationalist extremists who appear to have been responsible for the majority of the murders. Although the police and some local officials were aware of these acts of provocation, the story was successfully covered up in the subsequent trials and in the official reports. The book sets these events in a broad chronological context, considering the ways that the history of colonialism in Algeria recast the relationship between Muslims, Jews, and Europeans in North Africa.
Keywords:
France,
Algeria,
Constantine,
Colonialism,
Antisemitism,
Violence,
Jews,
Muslims,
Extremism
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781501739415 |
| Published to Cornell Scholarship Online: January 2020 |
DOI:10.7591/cornell/9781501739415.001.0001 |
