In the Maghreb and the Middle East, reactions to the Hamas offensive against Israel vary depending on the links maintained with Tel Aviv. But the authorities must also deal with public opinion totally committed to the Palestinian cause.
Reactions are increasing in the capitals of the Maghreb and the Arab-Muslim world, while the fighting continues between Israel and Hamas, and the human toll continues to rise.
While almost all officials agree to condemn the attacks against Israeli civilians, most also blame the Tel Aviv authorities for the events. The tone, however, is quite different from one country to another, in particular between Arab countries that have normalized their relations with the Jewish state and those that maintain hostility in principle in the name of defending the interests of the Palestinians.
In Morocco, where the rapprochement with Israel, under the aegis of the United States, has been particularly spectacular, the king called “for the holding of an emergency meeting of the council of the Arab League at the level of ministers of Affairs foreign countries” to evoke the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed in a statement that the kingdom “condemns attacks against civilians wherever they are”. He also underlines that Morocco “has constantly warned against the repercussions of the political blockage on peace in the region and against the risks of aggravation of tensions which result from it”, also recalling that in his eyes, “dialogue and negotiations remain the only paths to achieving a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian question, […] on the basis of resolutions of international legality and the principle of two States, as agreed at the international level. »
But discordant voices are also being raised in the country. Expressing its “major concerns” about the consequences of current events, the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) thus judged the “Zionist entity” responsible for the military escalation, believing that the Hamas attack must be seen as a “natural response” aimed at “defending the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people” in the face of the “policy of oppression, violence, colonization, racism and total denial of the rights of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government, which acts with impunity in the manifest indifference of the international community.”
Algiers accuses “the Zionist entity”
The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, declared that it was following “with deep concern the escalation of barbaric Zionist attacks against the Gaza Strip, which have cost the lives of dozens of innocent children of the Palestinian people, who fell in martyrs in the face of the stubbornness of the Zionist occupation in its policy of oppression and persecution imposed on the valiant Palestinian people.”
Algiers calls on international authorities to intervene “to protect the Palestinian people against the brutality and criminality, which have become the hallmark of the Zionist occupation of the Palestinian territories”, believing that “putting an end to the horrors and tragedies resulting from this conflict requires, without a doubt, respect for the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people and the establishment of their independent State on the 1967 borders with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.
In Tunis, left-wing activists began to gather on October 7 as soon as Hamas announced the launch of its “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. Gathered on the steps of the Municipal Theater, avenue Bourguiba, at the initiative of the National Authority for Support of Arab Resistance, the Fight against Normalization and Zionism, and the Tunisian Network for the Fight against Normalization, the demonstrators demanded the criminalization of normalization with Israel.
Since it welcomed the Palestinians expelled from Lebanon by the Israeli army in 1982, Tunisia has continued to show unwavering support for them. Although Hamas initiated the attack and targeted civilians, this weekend’s events were, in the eyes of protesters, the result of Israeli aggression.
On October 8, at the same place, leaders of Tunisian opposition parties, including Hamma Hammami, from the Workers’ Party, Nabil Hajji, from the Democratic Current, and Khelil Ezzaouia, from Ettakatol, relayed, alongside figures from civil society, including Ezzedine Hazgui, but also ordinary citizens, their support for the Palestinian cause. In the afternoon, it was the presidency itself that affirmed Tunisia’s total and unconditional support for the Palestinian people, to whom it recognizes the right to defend themselves and take back the lands from which they have been despoiled.
Kaïs Saïed also underlines what he describes as “the right of the Palestinians to establish the capital of their independent state in Al-Quds”. In Sfax, a march was organized by the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) and civil society to denounce “Israeli aggression and the abuses suffered by Palestinians for several decades”. This Monday morning, at 8 a.m., all schools in the country raised the Palestinian flag alongside the Tunisian colors.
“Logical result”
Also, a member of the Arab League, Djibouti for its part very clearly declares that it holds “the State of Israel responsible for the ongoing escalation due to its continued aggressions and violations constant rights of the Palestinian people and their holy places.” Reaffirming its “constant position of support for the brotherly Palestinian people in the realization of their aspirations, the obtaining of all their legitimate rights, including the establishment of their independent State with East Jerusalem as its capital”, the country, therefore, calls for “a “urgent action by the international community to compel Israel to end its provocations and flagrant violations of international law, and to prevent these events from being used as a pretext for the outbreak of a new unequal conflict against Palestinian civilians.”
In a press release, the Mauritanian government, for its part, “expressed its deep concern about the ongoing escalation in the occupied Palestinian territories”, saying it saw it as “the logical result of continued provocations and regular violations of the rights of the people Palestinian and the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli occupation authorities, in addition to the continued expansion of settlements.
Sunday, October 8, a demonstration was organized in Nouakchott “in support of the Palestinian resistance and the military operation launched by the Hamas movement”. The event brought together elected officials and representatives of different political movements, in particular the leader of the opposition, Amadou Ould Sidy El Moctar, from the ranks of the Islamist Tawassoul movement.
Egypt, for its part, insisted on remaining faithful to its traditional role as mediator, calling on both camps to “show the utmost restraint” and warning of “the serious danger of the ongoing escalation”. President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and his Foreign Minister said they had discussed the situation with the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, as well as with the Emirati, Jordanian, Turkish, French, and German authorities.
Dismay in the Emirates, pride in Iran
In its October 9 morning edition, the left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz underlines that, perhaps for the first time, “support for Israel is no longer taboo in the Arab world.” The newspaper does cite people condemning Hama’s attacks against civilians, but these are only individual positions taken on social media. In the capitals, the reactions reflect the links that the different countries of the Arab-Muslim world maintain with Tel Aviv.
The United Arab Emirates, which normalized its relations with Israel in 2020, said it was “dismayed” by the hostage-taking of Israeli civilians after the offensive launched on Saturday against Israel by Palestinian Hamas. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Israel and Hamas to “act in favor of peace”, stressing that there could be “no good reason to attack civilians”. In Riyadh, the Saudi Foreign Ministry called for “an immediate end to the escalation between the two camps and the protection of civilians”.
On the side of Israel’s most resolute adversaries, Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi described the attack launched by Hamas as a “proud operation”, stressing that the Jewish state was endangering the regional balance and that the Palestinians had the right to self-defense. The Houthi (pro-Iranian) militias of Yemen, finally, affirmed their support for the “heroic jihadist operation” of Hamas, believing that it revealed the “weakness, fragility and impotence” of Israel.
