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Morocco – Israel: The Anti-normalization Front Widens

The normalization of  Morocco with Israel is more than ever contested. After criticism from the PJD, the Islamist party in power when the normalization agreements were signed in December 2020, the response from Moroccan civil society is also beginning to take shape.

Under the aegis of former US President Donald Trump, Morocco and Israel normalized their relations at the end of 2020, in return for the recognition by the United States of Moroccan sovereignty over the occupied Saharawi territories.

The Moroccan official communication had maintained that support for the Palestinian cause will continue, highlighting the status of “president of the Al Quds committee” of King Mohammed VI.

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But the posture has proven untenable over the months. While the two countries have taken steps in their rapprochement,  particularly military , Benyamin Netanyahu returned to power in Israel at the head of a government described as “most to the right” in the history of this country.

Several street demonstrations, concomitantly with the contestation of the deterioration of purchasing power, have taken place in Morocco in recent months to denounce normalization with Israel.

The protest took another form with this forum published Thursday, March 23 and signed by 100 personalities from Moroccan civil society.

The forum is the initiative of several organizations, including the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement and the Moroccan Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (MACBI).

Its signatories ask the Moroccan government to reconsider its decision to normalize relations with Israel and to sever all ties with this country. They believe that the situation in the occupied territories has worsened with the advent of the new Israeli government, some of whose members declare themselves to be “fascists”.

The platform has already collected the signatures of Moroccan activists, journalists, academics and intellectuals. They call for a break with the Netanyahu government and the system of “apartheid that occupies Palestine”.

Morocco: civil society calls for a break with the Israeli government

Composed of a coalition of members of the extreme right, religious parties and settlers, the government led by Benyamin Netanyahu multiplies anti-Palestinian declarations and actions, pushing away the two-state solution.

The  latest statements  by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who denied the existence of the Palestinian people, caused an outcry.

According to the authors of the appeal, this extremist Israeli government has taken over to lead the military occupation “without a democratic mask”.

The Moroccan royal palace recently  reiterated  that the Palestinian issue is “a first-rate national cause”. If this is the official position of Morocco, “the enemies of the independence of Palestine” cannot be treated “as allies”, we read in the tribune.

 The royal palace was responding to an outing in which the president of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) and former Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, attacked Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita whom he accused of “defending  Israel  “.

The palace reminded Benkirane that foreign policy remained the exclusive domain of the king and that, moreover, the decision to normalize relations with Israel had been accepted by the entire political class, including the PJD.

It was the Prime Minister from this party, Saad Dine El Othmani, who signed the agreements for Morocco. Later, El Othmani admitted that it was a “painful” moment for him but that he had to apply a state decision.

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