Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked is on Monday (June 20th) on a working visit to Morocco, the third of its kind by a senior Israeli official to the kingdom, The Times Of Israel online newspaper reported.
According to the Israeli media, which cites a statement from Shaked’s office, the latter is expected to meet with her Moroccan interior counterpart as well as the ministers of foreign affairs and the economy in addition to other senior officials.
The same source indicated that the visit of the Israeli minister aims to promote bilateral cooperation with Rabat to “bring workers from Morocco to Israel for the construction and nursing sectors”.
“We are certain that this cooperation with the Moroccans will help us to advance the housing sector and also to help the elderly in Israel,” said the statement from Shaked’s office.
+ Bringing Moroccans to Israel for the construction and medical care sectors +
The Israeli minister also hopes to promote ties between civil societies in the two countries and highlight the historical relationship between Moroccans and the Jewish people.
This visit follows those made to the kingdom by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in August and Defense Minister Benny Gantz in November during which a historic defense cooperation agreement was signed.
Relations between Morocco and Israel were interrupted at the start of the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000, after briefly warming up in the 1990s following the Oslo peace process with the Palestinians.
Diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel were restored in 2020 under the so-called Abraham Accords initiated by US President Donald Trump, agreements under which Israel also normalized its relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
