A major diplomatic victory. Thus is presented to Morocco the recognition by Washington of the country’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, announced Thursday, December 10 by Donald Trump, at the end of nearly three years of talks led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita. To the point of erasing the bitterness that the restoration of diplomatic relations could cause “Full” with Israel – the other part of the deal negotiated by Mr. Trump – in a country traditionally attached to the Palestinian cause?
“When a country develops a relationship with Israel, does that automatically mean it is letting go of the Palestinian cause? No, Morocco is not letting go of the Palestinian cause ”, Mr. Bourita says, in an interview with World. Insisting on the historic role that Rabat has played in favor of peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Morocco is still in favor of a two-state solution.
“We have principles and an attachment to the Palestinian question. And we have assets and channels that serve peace in the region: no one else has the experience of cohabitation between Jews and Muslims that we have. It is the same logic that allowed Morocco to host the 1974 summit in Rabat, which recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization. [OLP] and which allowed Morocco to help countries that wanted peace in the region, including Egypt. “
Morocco, which had established limited diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in 1994, quietly played the role of mediator to bring Israel closer to Arab countries, before officially severing ties after the second Intifada in 2000.
But the contacts were never really cut. Trade relations between the two countries, linked by a powerful diaspora – between 700,000 and 1 million Israelis are of Moroccan origin – have never ceased. The Israeli press has also reported on several secret meetings between Moroccan and Israeli officials over the past twenty years. According to the Israeli television channel Channel 13, Nasser Bourita would have met Benyamin Netanyahu in September 2018, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Patriotic dimension
“We are not in the case of countries which discover Israel, which begin to have relations, which recognize the passport. With us, the Israeli passport has always allowed Moroccans from Israel to return ”, says the minister. In 2019, 70,000 of them visited the kingdom, taking indirect flights. According to the minister, direct air links will be inaugurated very soon.
“Morocco has always opened its doors and has never banned any cultural, political, scientific or sporting event that involved Israel’s participation. The Israeli national anthem has been played several times at sporting events hosted by Morocco. It is a context that does not exist anywhere else. Importing concepts from the Middle East is therefore not always appropriate in the case of Morocco ”, he continues.
In the Cherifian kingdom, the news was above all seen as a success favorable to the other great cause sacred in the eyes of Moroccans, the “Moroccan” of the Sahara. The patriotic dimension thus seems to have surpassed pro-Palestinian feelings. On social networks, Internet users display the red and green flags in the colors of Morocco, welcoming a “Victory for territorial integrity” from the country. The question of the status of this former Spanish colony, considered a “Non-self-governing territory” by the UN in the absence of a final settlement, for more than forty years has opposed Morocco to the separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria.
The Moroccan political class, however deeply imbued with the Palestinian cause, has remained silent. The head of government, Saad-Eddine Al-Othmani, of the Islamist PJD party, hailed the “Historic victory” Morocco, without commenting on the resumption of relations with Israel. During the summer of 2019, the Prime Minister had categorically rejected “Any normalization with the Zionist entity”.
“A poisoned gift”
Only the Al-Adl Wal-Ihsane (Justice and Charity) movement, an Islamist organization banned but “Tolerated” by the power, which had already demonstrated in 2019 against what is nicknamed by the Moroccan press “The deal of the century”, has stepped up to the plate, denouncing “A poisoned gift”. “We refuse to barter a parcel of Palestine in exchange for the recognition of our sovereignty over our lands”, writes the movement in a statement released Friday.
The foreign minister is trying to deny the idea that Rabat made a gesture in return for American support. “The recognition of the Sahara by the United States did not happen overnight. It was a construction over the years carried out with successive American administrations. Today, we have simply explained the foundations of this position ”, insists Mr. Bourita.
The question of the resumption of relations between Rabat and Israel had been revived since the visit of the head of American diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, in 2018, and has intensified in recent months. In May 2019, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, discussed with King Mohammed VI the contours of his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. “Moroccans are ready to do anything to defend their territorial integrity. Morocco has a national cause. Morocco also has an attachment to peace in the Middle East. But one is not at the expense of the other ”, concludes Mr. Bourita.
