France Aids Repatriation of Israelis Stranded in Morocco Amid COVID-19 Lockdown

These 26 people repatriated are part of the many Israelis who go to Morocco each year to participate in celebrations or pilgrimages. Among them are Israelis holding French or other passports. They found themselves stranded in Morocco after the implementation of the state of health emergency and confinement imposed by the authorities to curb the spread of covid-19 in the kingdom.

The former mayor of Jerusalem and Likud MP Nir Barkat led the census operation of this group made up of young Israeli tourists, an Israeli Bedouin Arab from East Jerusalem, and Israeli businessmen and Jews with dual Israeli-Moroccan nationality.

"At the end of March, when Israelis began to be repatriated from various parts of the world, Israel addressed a request to Morocco through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several other channels, and asked to allow the recovery of Israeli citizens who are in the country," confides the journalist Barak Ravid of the Israeli channel, Channel 13.

"We don’t have diplomatic relations with Morocco. So we had to go through intermediaries and contacts," said Shimon Mercer-Wood, spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Paris, on Friday to the AFP. "We asked the Quai d’Orsay, [the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs], and they agreed to give seats to Israeli citizens on a French repatriation flight," he said. "We are very grateful to the French for that."