Algeria, once hailed as the "Mecca of revolution," has blocked a march for Palestine amid a long-standing ban on street protests imposed after the 2019 uprising that ousted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The Algerian interior ministry this week rejected a request from a dozen opposition parties to organise a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the capital Algiers.
The coalition of parties had sought authorisation on 29 July to march under the banner "Algeria with Palestine, against starvation and displacement," proposing the dates of 7 or 8 August.
It would have been the first large-scale pro-Palestine street mobilisation since October 2023.
On 19 October 2023, a few days after the start of Israel's war on Gaza, the Algerian interior ministry authorised a demonstration in support of Palestine, with several thousand people marching together in Algiers.
This time, the Interior Ministry advised organisers to hold their events indoors instead, citing Law 89-28, a 1989 statute governing public gatherings.
The law allows broad discretion to ban protests deemed contrary "to national values or disruptive to public and moral orders."
No explanation was given as to how the proposed march might threaten public order or morality. However, the decision has reignited a long-simmering debate about whether Algeria's rulers are upholding the constitution.
"This isn't just about Gaza. It's about whether the Algerian state respects its own constitution", said Abdellouahab Yagoubi, a lawmaker from the opposition Movement of Society for Peace.
While the 2020 constitution guarantees the right to peaceful assembly, it also stipulates that this must take place "according to conditions set by law."
In 2021, authorities tightened those conditions, requiring prior notification and a full list of organisers, requirements that opposition parties say they met.
Yagoubi called the ban a "clear violation" of Article 52, and urged the repeal of Law 89-28, calling it outdated and incompatible with Algeria's post-Hirak constitutional framework.
The ban comes amid a wider crackdown on civic space in Algeria. Since 2021, the regime that emerged from Bouteflika's ousting, ironically led by his former Prime minister, has detained scores of people—journalists, activists, whistleblowers and ordinary citizens—for online expression or attending peaceful protests.
Even analysts sympathetic to the authorities admit the fear of some sort of uprising is what pushes the authorities to decide such bans.
"The government is likely worried that mass mobilisation may become a conduit for other agendas," wrote political analyst Mohamed Boudiaf.
The government's apprehension may be rooted in the memory of 2019, when hundreds of thousands of Algerians poured into the streets calling for the end of military rule. Chants of "La casa del Mouradia"—a rebuke of the presidential palace—and "Palestine martyrs" echoed through the crowds, blending anti-regime sentiment with support for Palestine.
Both slogans originated in the terraces of Algeria's football stadiums, where political expression long found refuge under the veil of sport.
In the Maghreb, support for the Palestinian cause has often walked hand-in-hand with demands for democratic reform. For many, authorising one is perceived as permitting the other.
In Morocco and Tunisia, where pro-Palestine protests are allowed under varying degrees of control, demonstrators have used such rallies to criticise their own governments and politicians seen as complicit in injustice, whether at home or in Gaza.
Last May, a broad coalition of Algerian parties called on authorities to lift the protest ban.
"It is incomprehensible for the authorities to continue to ban marches and demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause, which is our central issue," said Louisa Hanoune, leader of the Workers' Party.
Algeria has long positioned itself as a regional champion of Palestine, rejecting normalisation with Israel and condemning its actions in Gaza. However, critics argue that its rhetoric abroad is undermined by repression at home.
Still, opposition groups continue to call for allowing the public to express solidarity with Gaza.