Local pro-Palestine activists now contend that only the closure of the Israeli office in Rabat and a complete break with Israel will align Morocco with the Palestinian cause. [Getty]
For the first time since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza, Morocco has reaffirmed its diplomatic ties with Israel, despite widespread anti-normalisation protests and sentiment across the North African kingdom.
In an interview with French outlet Le Point, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita defended Morocco’s agreement with Israel, arguing that maintaining relations with Tel Aviv does not signify endorsement of Israeli government actions.
“Morocco has strongly condemned, at the highest levels, Israeli attacks on civilians, hospitals, and schools, deeming them unacceptable”, he said in an interview published on 2 November.
“This approach should not be seen as abandoning the Palestinian cause. Morocco’s position on Palestine remains a priority,” Bourita added, underscoring the Moroccan kingdom’s Jewish heritage as a basis for this complex relationship.Â
Morocco was once home to a quarter million Jews. Now only 2,000 live in Morocco and around a million Jews of Moroccan origin are based in Israel.
Nevertheless, the Moroccan Observatory Against Normalisation has denounced Bourita’s remarks as “delusional and false,” alleging that Rabat has “done nothing to prove support for Palestinians since the Gaza war began.”
“Mr Bourita hides behind untruths. Maintaining ties with a state whose lawmakers oppose the two-state solution is not supporting Palestinians”, Aziz Hanaoui, a member of the pro-Palestine group, told The New Arab.
In July, Israel’s parliament overwhelmingly voted against the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Moroccan pro-Palestine groups have also criticised Bourita’s invocation of Jewish heritage as misleading, calling it an attempt to legitimise ties with a state “committing genocide.”
Morocco normalised ties with Israel in 2020 under a US brokered deal, exchanging diplomatic relations for US recognition of Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara.
Presented as a strategic move for “national interest,” the deal avoided immediate backlash, even from typically critical groups like the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) which took part in signing the accord as a majority party at the time.
However, since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, several parties and groups have broken their silence and joined the widespread weekly anti-normalisation demonstrations.
The PJD has also distanced itself from the accord, claiming it had been pressured into the agreement.
“It was a painful and difficult moment… but it was a state decision”, former Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani, who signed the deal, said in 2022 after he left the office.
Local pro-Palestine activists now contend that only the closure of the Israeli office in Rabat and a complete break with Israel will align Morocco with the Palestinian cause.Â
“We took this step [revoking normalisation] in 2000 during the Second Intifada, when Israel’s crimes were far less severe,” argues Hanaoui.
After the Oslo Accords, Morocco normalised ties for the first time with Israel “to maintain dialogue and understanding.”
However, Rabat revoked the accord shortly in reaction to Israel’s brutality during the Second Intifada and the Moroccan street’s rising opposition to Tel Aviv.
Despite Pro-Palestine groups’ multiple attempts this year to submit an anti-normalisation petition—signed by over 10,000 Moroccans—to Morocco’s government, “absurd” bureaucratic hurdles have stymied the effort, say activists. Yet they remain determined.
“We will not stop until normalisation is revoked,” Hanaoui vowed, hinting at renewed efforts in the coming days. If successful, this petition could force parliament to debate and vote on the diplomatic ties with Israel—a first in North Africa and the Middle East.
