Tens of thousands of Moroccans on Sunday protested Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza while putting anger toward US President Donald Trump near the center of their grievances.
Demonstrators denounced Israel, the United States, and their own government. Some stepped on Israeli flags, waved banners displaying slain Hamas leaders and waved posters juxtaposing Trump alongside displaced Palestinians fleeing their homes.
The protest is one of many that have since erupted across the Middle East and North Africa, where leaders typically worry about demonstrations undermining domestic stability.
The protests have included a range of groups, including the Islamist association al-Adl W’al-Ihsan. Moroccan authorities tolerate most demonstrations, but have arrested some activists who have rallied in front of businesses or foreign embassies or implicated the monarchy in their complaints.
Morocco normalized ties with Israel in 2020, establishing official diplomatic and economic relations with the Jewish state in wake of similar agreements with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan.
In countries that have historically aligned with the US, anti-Trump backlash has emerged as a theme. Demonstrators in Rabat on Sunday condemned his proposal to displace millions of Palestinians to make way for the redevelopment of Gaza, as well as US efforts to pursue pro-Palestinian activists.
Still, many Moroccans said they saw Trump’s policies as mostly consistent with his predecessor, Joe Biden’s.
“[Trump] has made the war worse,” said Mohammed Toussi, who traveled from Casablanca with his family to protest. “Biden hid some things, but Trump has shown it all.” The protesters, Toussi added, remain angry about Morocco’s decision to normalize ties with Israel.
“It’s not a war, Gaza is getting erased from the earth,” the 62-year-old Tamesna resident said.
Abdelhak al-Arabi, an adviser to Morocco’s former Islamist prime minister, said the reasons Moroccans were protesting had grown throughout the war. He predicted popular anger would continue until the war ends.
The war began when Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Organizers condemned Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza, which has killed hundreds of Palestinians since the government renewed its air and ground offensive last month, after the collapse of January’s ceasefire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the goal of the resumed strikes are to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages, and announced last month that hostage talks would only take place “under fire.”
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. The war has left most of Gaza in ruins, and at its height displaced around 90 percent of the population.