Several hundred thousand people marched in Rabat to show their support for the Palestinian people and ask the kingdom to end its rapprochement with Israel.
Unheard of in the streets of Rabat for twenty years: a real popular demonstration of condemnation of Israeli military operations in Gaza and support for the Palestinians was held on Sunday October 15. The protest march brought together “several hundred thousand people” , according to the organizers, the Moroccan Front in Support of Palestine and Against Normalization (FMSPCN), which brings together around twenty parties, unions and associations, and the National Action Group for Palestine, close to the Islamists of the Justice and Development Party. “There were more than 300,000 people in the street ,” reports Abdullah Abaakil, elected to the Casablanca council under the label of the United Socialist Party, who notes a “much greater participation than during the demonstrations against the war in Iraq, in 2003 “.
“The people want the criminalization of normalization ,” chanted the demonstrators, denouncing the Palestinian deaths – 2,750, according to a provisional report, Monday morning – and the resumption of official relations between Morocco and the Hebrew state recorded in 2020 in the framework of the Abraham Accords. “We demand the closure of the Israeli embassy and the cessation of all relations with Israel ,” declared Sion Assidon, member of the FMSPCN secretariat, who plans other demonstrations in the coming days, “depending on the evolution of the situation in Gaza .
A reinforced police presence was visible this weekend around the synagogues of Casablanca and Jewish educational and cultural establishments in the metropolis, where the vast majority of the approximately 3,000 Moroccans of the Jewish faith live. In this context, the United States Embassy in Morocco issued an alert on Friday, October 13, calling on its nationals to “exercise discretion” , “avoid demonstrations and crowds” and “remain vigilant in places frequented by tourists and Westerners .
“A breakup does not seem possible”
While the protest in Morocco is gaining ground, the response of the Israeli army to the bloody attacks by Hamas in several localities of the Hebrew state, which have left at least 1,400 dead since Saturday October 7, highlights the tests the relationship between Morocco and Israel. Since these attacks, the kingdom has shown extreme caution, even distancing itself from the Jewish state. If King Mohammed VI, who chairs the Al-Quds committee, did not comment on this issue, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted equivocally in a press release released on the day of the attacks, without mentioning Israel and speaking of “military actions in the Gaza Strip” , even though they took place on Israeli territory.
