Moroccan Islamist Party Apologizes After Royal Rebuke on Israel Policy

The PJD categorically denies "any interference in the constitutional powers of the King as well as his strategic roles and royal prerogatives", we can read in the party’s statement, published on Wednesday. The party takes note of the observations and warnings of the Royal Palace and expresses its great pride in "the principled and firm position of His Majesty the King towards the Palestinian cause and his constant affirmation that it is at the same level as the issue of the territorial integrity of the kingdom".

The PJD "categorically denies that its position is linked to any internal partisan or electoral agenda", the note specifies, stating that the party’s reaction followed an intervention by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad, Nasser Bourita, who "like the other members of the Executive, may be subject to criticism and controls on the basis of the government program".

"The practices, positions and communications of the party are limited to what the constitution authorizes for any political party," the statement stressed, recalling that parties "freely exercise their activities within the framework of respect for the constitution and the law, and within the framework of the freedom of opinion and expression guaranteed in all its forms by the constitution." This "partisan and national duty" must also be accomplished "taking into account the supreme national interests," the PJD specifies.

The party of Abdelilah Benkirane did not fail to denounce "the [media] campaign in which a group of websites and pens have been involved," which it considers "a flagrant violation of the law and the ethics of journalistic work, with the sole ambition of insulting a national political party, the PJD in this case, and whose political history has always testified to its high national positions..."