Moroccans Protest Diplomatic Ties with Israel in Nationwide Demonstrations

Nearly a year and a half later, the anger against the normalization between Morocco and Israel has not subsided. Hundreds of Moroccans took to the streets in more than thirty cities in the kingdom last Wednesday to denounce the rapprochement between Rabat and Tel Aviv. "The demonstrations that took place on Wednesday in 38 Moroccan cities remind us that Moroccans will continue their struggle to thwart normalization with the occupying state, because normalization is a danger to our country," said Al Tayeb Madmadh, a member of the Moroccan Front for Support of Palestine and Against Normalization, to The New Arab.

In Rabat, protesters from various political backgrounds, including secular leftists and young people from Morocco’s largest Islamist association, Al Adl Wal Ihssane (Justice and Charity), which is officially banned by the kingdom, organized a sit-in in front of the Parliament. A demonstration supervised by riot police. "Infiltrators from the Negev, colonization is terrorism," chanted the protesters. The sit-in took place four days after the participation of Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad, in the Negev summit in Israel.

Israel has recently arrested dozens of Palestinian Bedouins and demolished their homes in the Negev region, provoking strong reactions from the protesters. They burned the Israeli flag and chanted: "Palestine resists and regimes negotiate" and "No normalization, no surrender of the resistance forward."