Proceeds Go to Algerian Activists
When Jerusalem city was under Jordanian rule 66 years ago, the Algerian Al-Ittihad football team was a welcome guest to the holy city.
A friendly match with the Jerusalemite Muazzafin Club team was held at Al-Mutran (St. George’s) School Stadium in a spirit of solidarity
with the Algerian team that was suffering from the scourge of French colonialism during the Algerian Revolution (1954-1962).
The match was held precisely 2 months after a horrific massacre that French warplanes committed against Saqiat Sidi Youssef,
a border village between Tunisia and Algeria belonging to Tunisian territory, where hundreds of displaced Algerians took refuge to escape
the horrors of French oppression on the northern outskirts of their homeland. The French colonialist regime wanted to punish the Tunisians
for their support of the Algerian Revolution, and so, Saqiat Sidi Youssef village was bombed. In a surprise air attack, 25 French warplanes raided
the village and the intention was clear: to maximize civilian casualties and destroy the village. Here’s how colonialist brutality materialized;
the French chose to attack the village on the day the weekly aid delivery arrived aboard the International Red Cross and Tunisian Red Crescent trucks.
The trucks along with dozens of gathered civilians seeking relief were air-bombarded.
The massacre left dozens of Algerian and Tunisian victims and massive destruction in the village. As a result,
the French consuls were expelled from Tunisia, France was condemned on a global scale, and people took to the streets across the Arab world.
That match in Jerusalem in 1958 was one of the forms of solidarity and support from the Palestinian people for the Algerian Revolution.