Moroccan Activist Summoned by Police Over 2022 Social Media Post on Israel-Palestine

It was on his Facebook page that Hassan Bennajeh announced that he had received a summons from the judicial police of Rabat. According to his explanations, this summons is "related to a complaint from the public prosecutor" against a publication dating from May 2022 on his former Facebook account. Through this publication, he had reacted to the assassination of Palestinian journalist Shereen Abu Aqleh and the normalization of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel. This account would have already been deleted due to anti-Israeli messages.

The leader of the Al Adl Wal Ihsane movement said in his message: "They [the Israeli authorities] killed Shireen in the occupied territories there and receive a hero’s welcome in the occupied territories here [Morocco]. Target, target. May God have mercy on you. Normalization is a betrayal." "My message was interpreted differently from my intention, which is confirmed by the message itself, before and after, and the context which reinforces my intention and refutes any distorting interpretation, which I explained in the report," Hassan Bennajeh rectified, accusing the Moroccan authorities "of using such cases against activists and bloggers to restrict freedom of opinion".

The activist can count on the solidarity of various political factions, namely the Moroccan movement against normalization, one of the few groups that bring together conservatives and progressives in Morocco and the Committee to Support Omar Radi, Soulaimane Raïssouni, Maâti Monjib and all victims of freedom of expression violations. "[...] The desire to summon and hear the professor by the judicial police after the defamation campaign that targeted him is to put pressure on him in an attempt to curb his activism in favor of human rights," denounced the Support Committee.