Amazigh Activists Embrace Morocco-Israel Ties, Seek Recognition

Moroccan Amazigh activists are beaming with happiness to the point that they propose to establish December 10 as an anniversary date, reports Le Monde. "The historical symbolism of the event must be celebrated," supports the Atlas Transift Confederation, a coalition of Amazigh associations from the Moroccan High Atlas. Some Berber activists perceive the Hebrew state as a model of success in reclaiming an ancestral land. "Since the colonial era, the Amazighs have seen their culture and history rejected and repressed," notes Mohamed El Ouazguiti, coordinator of the Atlas Transift Confederation and creator of the AmazighWorld information site. "Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the Hebrews, victims of the same fate, have managed to revive their identity and even their language."

In 2000, Morocco’s decision to close its liaison office in Tel Aviv following the second intifada was not to the liking of some Amazigh activists. In 2005, a project for a friendship group between Berbers and Israelis was created. Faced with controversy, the initiative did not prosper. Facebook and WhatsApp now serve as means of communication. But before this episode, there was already a coordination structure for Amazigh associations created in 1995 at the international level. This is the Amazigh World Congress (CMA). According to Mohand Tilmatine, one of the founders of this organization and a researcher on the Berber issue, this organization was even inspired by the model of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) founded in 1936 to become the "diplomatic arm of the Jewish people" but above all to defend the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

"The Israeli model is highly appreciated by a segment of the Amazigh activist society, but this comparison has its limits," he specifies. "The Amazighs have been discriminated against on a land they have never left." In 2016, they are still moving the lines. Some Moroccan Berber activists traveled to Tel Aviv where they discussed with members of the Moroccan Jewish community as well as with Knesset deputies. This visit had provoked the anger of pro-Palestinian associations who had insistently demanded that the Moroccan authorities prosecute anyone going to Israel for "intelligence with the enemy".

Water has flowed under the bridges. No one has attacked the Amazigh associations that have expressed their joy at the restoration of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel. However, this pro-Israeli sympathy has literally not undermined solidarity with Palestine. According to many Amazigh activists, the latter identifies with pan-Arabism - a political and cultural movement aimed at unifying the Arab peoples in the post-independence years - which they disapprove of. They consider pan-Arabism to be an exclusive ideology threatening the plural religious and ethnic identity of North Africa.

While Berber activists are enthusiastic about the rapprochement between the kingdom and the Hebrew state, the Israeli authorities do not seem to publicly support the Amazigh movement. "I have no connection with the Amazigh movement. It is a political movement. As a representative of the State of Israel in Morocco, I do not wish to comment on Moroccan affairs at all," David Govrin, Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Rabat, told Hespress.