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Morocco, which normalized its relations with Israel in December 2020, is willing to ” take advantage of “ its links with all parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to promote the resumption of the peace process, King Mohammed VI said on Monday (November 29th). “Morocco will continue its efforts to bring together the conditions conducive to a return of the parties to the negotiating table”, said the monarch on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. To do this, the kingdom “Will take advantage of its position and its privileged relations with all the parties and the acting international powers”, he added in a speech.
Morocco reestablished relations with Israel a year ago as part of the Abrahamic Accords, a normalization process between the Hebrew state and Arab countries supported by the US administration. The two countries had already forged diplomatic relations in the early 1990s before Rabat ended them at the start of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s against the Israeli occupation.
Anti-normalization protests with Israel took place in Morocco on Monday, mobilizing a few dozen pro-Palestinian activists in several cities in the kingdom, according to videos posted on social networks.
As was the case on Sunday already, a protest rally against the rapprochement with the Jewish state was prevented by the authorities in Rabat, AFP noted. “It’s been forty-three years that we celebrate this day [de solidarité] without problem and without ban, but this is the first time that we have been banned [de manifestation] “, lamented Ahmed Amine, a 65-year-old protester. Another pro-Palestinian sympathizer, Mouad Al-Jouhri, 63, lambasted “Betrayal and normalization with the (Israeli) enemy”.
” Stab “
In his speech, Mohammed VI called for “Intensive and effective diplomatic efforts” in order to “Relaunch negotiations between the two parties with a view to finding a favorable outcome to the Palestinian question within the framework of the two-state solution”, based on the 1967 borders and resolutions of international law.
The Moroccan ruler further called for preserving the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem as well as “Its legal, historical and demographic status”. Mohammed VI is chairman of the Al-Quds committee, responsible for helping to safeguard Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
His speech comes a few days after the signing in Rabat of a security cooperation agreement ” unprecedented “ between the Cherifian kingdom and the Hebrew state during a visit to Morocco by the Israeli Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz.
This agreement – the first of its kind with an Arab country, according to the Israeli side – should in particular facilitate the acquisition by Morocco of technologies from Israel’s military industry, to the chagrin of neighboring Algeria, a regional rival and which made the Palestinian cause a pillar of its diplomacy.
In a statement, Fatah, a secular nationalist party led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday called “Stab in the back of Jerusalem” the Moroccan-Israeli security alliance.
