French Ambassador Herve Alphand said last night that his Government “has done all that was in her power to protect the rights and liberties of the Jewish population of Algeria. Addressing a dinner of the B’nai B’rith International Council, the French diplomat said that: “During long negotiations with the FLN, France has insisted on the necessity for human rights to be guaranteed–and particularly among the Jewish community of Algeria–as strictly as for any other Frenchman or European.”
Emphasizing that Jews have been living in Algeria since the time of the Romans, M. Alphant said that, under the terms of the Evian agreement, Algerian Jews who reject Algerian citizenship “will nevertheless retain their French nationality and enjoy the same rights as all other French residents in Algeria.”
The dinner addressed by M. Alphand was the highlight of the International Council’s three-day parley here, which closed today. Attending the event were representatives of 17 Embassies here as well as several U.S. Government officials, among them Phillips Talbot, Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East. The Council meeting will be followed, this weekend, by B’nai B’rith, triennial convention. According to Label A. Katz, of New Orleans, national president of B’nai B’rith, who is also chairman of the International Council, the convention will be attended by more than 1,200 delegates.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
