“The people want an end to normalization with Israel,” hundreds of thousands of demonstrators chanted in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Sunday. Now that Gaza is being bombed by Israel and a ground offensive appears imminent, Moroccan demonstrators want their government to immediately break recently strengthened ties with Israel. “Morocco stands with the Palestinians. Their suffering is our suffering,” said Ranya Hamdi, who responded to the call of several pro-Palestine organizations in the city, in a conversation via Facetime.
The demonstration was initially banned by the government, but that ban did not stop Moroccans from taking to the streets. With Palestinian flags and banners, the crowd walks through Rabat singing. “The people want the liberation of Palestine,” they chant while clapping along in time.
For years, Morocco visibly supported the Palestinians. Former King Hassan II (who reigned from 1961 to 1999), together with heads of state from other Arab countries, founded the Al-Quds Committee, an organization that is committed, among other things, to the protection of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Morocco, as chairman of the group, is seen as the protector of the holy mosque.
This position hit the population even harder when the Moroccan government strengthened diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020. How can you strengthen ties with Israel, say most Moroccans, a country that only a few months ago used violence against Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan?
Abraham chords
With its rapprochement with Israel, Morocco joined the list of Arab countries with which Israel has restored relations – after Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which concluded the so-called Abraham Accords with Israel. A “historic” event according to Israeli security advisor Meir Ben Shabbat, a Jew of Moroccan descent, who traveled to Arab countries together with prominent Americans to shake hands and seal the Abraham Accords.
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“A shame,” says protester Ranya Hamdi about the rapprochement with Israel. “The Arab world is failing its own people. For what? Trade agreements? Money? How can people sleep when they have blood on their hands? This massacre in Gaza is not something that happened last week. This has been happening for 75 years and the world is watching. I’m ashamed as a human being.”
Morocco traditionally had a large Jewish community, but after the establishment of the state of Israel 75 years ago, a large part emigrated to ‘the promised land’. The emigration ensured that Morocco had normal relations with Israel for a long time. But that changed after the second intifada, in 2000, when Morocco ended the relationship in solidarity with the Palestinians. But after more than twenty years, those ties have recently been restored.
The transaction for the so-called ‘peace plan’ was completed last summer. In exchange for Morocco’s normalization and restoration of diplomatic ties, Israel now recognizes Western Sahara as Moroccan territory. An important boost for Rabat, because the Moroccan claim to the area is internationally controversial.
Israel has also committed to opening a consulate in Dakhla, a city in southern Western Sahara. Furthermore, the intelligence services of both countries now work closely together and tourism for Israelis is better facilitated. Morocco now also hopes that Israel will invest money in the country.
Own struggle
“It is not good what is happening now in Palestine,” says a 36-year-old man from Casablanca who does not want his name in the newspaper, by telephone. He was trained as an IT professional, but has only found work as a taxi driver. “We have our own battle to fight here. We have just had an earthquake, the population of the Rif is still oppressed, there is hunger and critics are disappearing into jail. There are a lot of things wrong in Morocco, so I think it’s hypocritical to start protesting en masse now,” he says on the phone. It is a sound that is shared more often among young people, especially on social media.
With the war, Morocco now finds itself in a difficult position: Western Sahara or the Palestinians? According to columnist Reda Dalil of the Moroccan magazine TelQuel the Moroccan authorities cannot ignore “the feeling of the population in favor of the Palestinians.” But the government does not yet appear to be responding to the people’s call to sever diplomatic ties with Israel.
The vast majority in Morocco continues to speak out for the Palestinian cause. “Anyone who remains silent now is on the wrong side of history,” says Montassir Azzrak via Facetime during the demonstration in Rabat, while waving a Palestinian flag. “Our freedom is not complete without the freedom of the Palestinians, said Nelson Mandela, right?”