Sunday, 11 December, was the day for which Larbi Alilat and the reconstituted F.L.N. organisation in Algiers had been so carefully preparing. It was to turn out to be one of the key days of the Algerian war for the Muslim cause. Thousands of green-and-white F.L.N. flags had been sewn together by the women of the Casbah, and distributed — together with banners and placards — clandestinely throughout the Muslim quarters. But the resultant chain reaction far exceeded anything anticipated by the organisers. Partly it may have been sparked by the pieds noirs' demonstrations of the two preceding days; partly by word on the swift "Arab telegraph" of the racial violence in Belcourt the previous night. At heart, however, it seems to have been one of those inexplicable explosions caused by long-pent-up forces.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1305