In Morocco, hardly a day goes by without a rally for Palestine. Israel's response to the Hamas offensive and the devastation it has wrought in the Gaza Strip have aroused a wave of anger in the kingdom, proving how attached Moroccans are to the Palestinian cause despite the rapprochement Morocco and Israel have made since 2020.
Since the major national march on October 15 in Rabat, the mobilization has continued to spread to many cities, at the call of coalitions bringing together left-wing parties, trade unions, associations and Islamist organizations. Three themes unite the demonstrators: support for the Palestinian people and "resistance," denunciation of "Western complicity" with Israeli actions and questioning the normalization of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel enacted in December 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords – an agreement between Israel and several Arab countries brokered by the United States. Never before has criticism of official rapprochement been so vocal.
On October 17, hundreds of Moroccans spontaneously took to the streets in Tangier, Fez, Casablanca and Rabat in reaction to the bombing of a hospital in Gaza. On October 18, a rally was organized in front of the US consulate in Casablanca, and the following day in front of the United Nations representation in Rabat. Protests also spread to the universities, which were blocked on October 18 by the National Union of Moroccan Students who declared a strike, while on the 20th, the Democratic Labor Confederation called on employees to stop work for one hour.
On October 24, a rally was held near the French consulate in Casablanca against Emmanuel Macron's visit to Israel. Held at bay by the police who had closed off the adjacent streets, the demonstrators denounced "the criminal position of the French government, which supports genocide in Gaza."
And there's no end in sight. "The aim now is to get Israel's liaison office in Rabat to close down, because normalization makes us collabos [collaborators, in reference to French citizens who worked with Nazis during WWII]," said Saadia Elouallous, a member of the Moroccan Front in Support of Palestine and Against Normalization. In fact, normalization is clearly contested at the rallies where demonstrators chant: "The people want an end to normalization."
"With all the images we're seeing from Gaza, it will no longer be acceptable for a Zionist to set foot in Morocco," said Safaa, a law student from Casablanca who has been running sit-ins for the past week. "At first," she said, "I wasn't totally opposed to normalization, as it concerned the territorial integrity of my country." In exchange for formalizing relations with Israel, Morocco obtained Washington's "recognition" of its sovereignty over the Western Sahara – a sacred patriotic cause in the kingdom. "But now, there's no question of accepting either a political relationship or an economic exchange," said Safaa.
For the time being, the calls for a break with Israel have not met with success. The staff of Israel's liaison office in Rabat were evacuated on October 18 for security reasons, but only temporarily. Israeli diplomat Lior Ben Dor assured Moroccans via the press that "relations between Tel Aviv and Rabat are founded on solid and lasting foundations, and [Israel] will not allow anyone to compromise them."
For its part, Morocco is sticking to its diplomatic line from the outset: maintaining relations with Israel, while calling for de-escalation and the protection of civilians, as Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita reiterated at the peace summit in Egypt on October 21.
While the two allies have stepped up their cooperation – essentially military, security, trade and tourism – since normalization, the kingdom regularly reaffirms its commitment to a two-state solution and to the Palestinian cause under the leadership of King Mohammed VI. He chairs the Al-Quds Committee and is charged with overseeing Jerusalem's holy sites. It's a balanced position, but not enough to convince his people.
"Even if protests have waned in recent years due to the decline in public freedoms and the weakening of political parties, trade unions and social groups, the Palestinian cause remains among those historically defended by Moroccans as an Arab and Muslim people," said political scientist Abdelmoughit Benmessaoud Tredano.
Since the Abraham Accords, the Front de Soutien à la Palestine (Palestine Support Front) has organized 11 days of action. "They were barely tolerated and in some cases dissolved," reported Sion Assidon, one of its members. And yet, under the Constitution, the direction of Morocco's foreign policy is the prerogative of the monarch. "Any political party that defended a different stance [from that laid down by the palace] was invited to keep quiet," added the activist.
In March, the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) was reprimanded by the royal cabinet for having deplored the pro-Israeli inclination of Moroccan diplomacy. During the summer, an internet user was sentenced to five years in prison for offending the monarchy after criticizing normalization on Facebook. At present, the rallies are "tolerated but with a desire to minimize and rebrand them, since they are presented as being in harmony with the official position, ignoring one of their main demands: the end of normalization."
Nevertheless, the policy of rapprochement is in trouble. For many months, Moroccan diplomacy had been preparing to organize the second Negev forum, bringing together the signatory countries of the Abraham Accords. But this prospect has now vanished into thin air. There was also talk of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the kingdom, which now seems politically impossible. On October 17, Morocco condemned in the strongest terms the bombing of a hospital in Gaza, whose responsibility is disputed, identifying Israel as the source of the strike.
"Morocco cannot ignore the unanimous disapproval of its people in the face of the ongoing disaster in Gaza and will have no choice but to put the normalization process on hold," argued political scientist Mohamed Tozy. "But relations between Morocco and Israel predate normalization by several decades, without being openly displayed. The relationship is not one of country to country but of community to community. While normalization will undoubtedly be suspended, there is little chance that it will be called into question."
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.