Moroccan Protesters Demand End to Israel Ties Amid Gaza Conflict

Will Morocco succumb to popular pressure? On December 10, thousands of people took to the streets of the kingdom to demand the end of the cooperation agreements with Tel Aviv and call for the closure of the Israeli liaison office in Rabat. "The people want the end of normalization," chanted a crowd in front of the Moroccan parliament. In 2021, 41% of Moroccans were in favor of normalization. The following year, this figure dropped to 31%, according to Arabometer. However, it remains one of the highest favorable rates to normalization in the MENA region.

Since the surprise and spectacular attack by Hamas on October 7 and the Israeli retaliation on the Gaza Strip, Moroccan groups against normalization, who used to organize limited sit-ins, are mobilizing crowds. They led a "million march", blocking Mohammed V Square in Rabat, an unprecedented event since the Abraham Accords. "Those who support normalization with the Israeli entity constitute a discordant minority within Moroccan society, which breathes the Palestinian cause," declared Abderrahim Chikhi, former head of the Unicité and Réforme Islamist movement, to The New Arab.

For Abdelkader Al-Alami, member of the National Action Group for Palestine, going back on normalization "is a fundamental requirement that must be implemented, and we are pursuing our demands as Moroccans, and we will not stop until they are fully realized."

After the Oslo Accords, Morocco first normalized its relations with Israel "to maintain dialogue and understanding," before breaking them off in the middle of the second Intifada in 2000. Will these relations, which resumed under the aegis of former US President Donald Trump in exchange for the American recognition of the Moroccanness of the Sahara, be broken again? "It is unlikely that the current crisis will put an end to the Moroccan-Israeli normalization process. However, if the war continues for months with a high number of casualties, this will place the Moroccan state in a critical position that could affect normalization, or even lead to its withdrawal," comments a report from the World Politics Review.

On Wednesday, the Hamas government announced that the Israeli military operations had killed 20,000 people in Gaza since the start of the war, including at least 8,000 children and 6,200 women. And Israel is in no hurry to heed calls for a ceasefire. "The war will continue until the elimination of Hamas, until victory. Those who think we will stop are disconnected from reality," assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.