While many today are outraged by Israel's killing...

Editor's note: ...of Palestinians, few remember that on May 8, 1945, as France celebrated the defeat of Nazism, French colonial forces (French Army, colonial infantry regiments made up of both French settlers and colonized troops, police forces, gendarmes, settler militias, and irregular armed European civilians loyal to France) massacred an estimated 45,000 Algerians in Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata after Algerians marched carrying their national flag and demanding the independence France had promised them. The first demonstrator killed was Bouzid Saâl, shot for waving the Algerian flag, after which French authorities unleashed mass repression, executions, and attacks on civilians across the region. What began as celebrations of liberation from fascism ended in one of the deadliest massacres of French colonial rule, for which France has never issued a full formal state apology. The French were ruthless racists.

Mientras en Paris los franceses celebraban la derrota del nazismo, el 8 de mayo de 1945, el colonialismo francés se comportaba como Hitler en Argelia, matando a más de 45.000 argelinos en las ciudades de Setif, Guelma y Kherrata.

Aquel día los argelinos salieron a a las calles a… pic.twitter.com/xcACkVg880

— Daniel Mayakovski (@DaniMayakovski) May 9, 2026