At the head of Israel’s liaison office in Rabat, the diplomat David Govrin was recalled by Israel after the opening of an investigation following the receipt of several complaints concerning sexual and financial irregularities which would have been committed within this office.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has recalled the country’s main representative in Morocco, David Govrin, pending an investigation into allegations of a series of sexual and financial irregularities within the Israeli mission opened in 2021 in Rabat, including accusations that a senior official sexually exploited several Moroccan women.
It was the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alon Ushpiz, who decided on the recall of David Govrin.
The ongoing investigation is being conducted by an Israeli delegation that arrived in Morocco last week to collect statements from staff sent by the ministry to work in the liaison office.
According to an article by the Israeli Ynet news site, Foreign Ministry Inspector General Hagai Bahar has opened an internal investigation. Three embassy employees, Moroccan Jews who were employed as local workers, were fired. A fourth employee, an Israeli diplomat of Moroccan and French nationality, resigned and returned to Paris.
The same source indicates that the departures of these employees were caused by “financial scandals” and “abuse of influence” at the embassy in order to obtain donations from the Jewish community in Morocco and funds from the local authority for the operation of the Jewish Home — a Jewish cultural center established in Essaouira on the initiative of the adviser to the King of Morocco, André Azoulay.
The ministry is also reportedly investigating reports that a local businessman and Jewish community leader, identified as Samy Cohen, a friend of Govrin, was involved in hosting several Israeli ministers, including Yair Lapid, Ayelet Shaked and Gideon Saar, and in arranging meetings between them and local officials, when he was in no way officially affiliated with the mission.
