Survey: Moroccan Public Strongly Supports Palestinians Despite Diplomatic Ties with Israel

Conducted by a Moroccan media, the survey covers 13,857 Moroccan citizens aged 20 to 70 years old. It revealed that 98.2% of respondents believe that the Palestinian cause should be an absolute priority for all Muslims, reports the Israeli media Mako. The survey results suggest that 97.1% of citizens support the Hamas action, from October 7, 2023, as an act of resistance to the occupation, while only 2.9% oppose it.

Since the spectacular Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli retaliation, Morocco, which was "one of the most friendly countries towards Israel" according to Mako, "has overnight become one of the most hostile countries towards Israel". This is evidenced by the many incidents reported by the Israeli media. These include racist calls suggesting that "the Jews will stab Moroccans in the back", an alleged physical assault on an Israeli tourist in a market, and allegations that two Israeli women were forced to pay bribes to enter the country.

In September 2024, Morocco saw more than 5,000 solidarity demonstrations with Gaza, including 188 local and national marches, 817 solidarity events, 8 national protest days and 21 boycott campaigns against companies supporting Israel. With this number of demonstrations in support of Palestine, Morocco has become one of the five countries (the United States, Yemen, Turkey and Iran) that have seen the largest number of rallies against Israel, in the context of the war in Gaza, it is noted.

"Most citizens oppose maintaining relations with Israel given the actions of the Israeli army in Gaza against the Palestinians," said a local source to the Israeli media. This position has had a considerable impact on Morocco’s reputation in Israel. It has decreased by 8.7 points between 2023 and 2024, according to a recent report by the Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES) and Reputation Lab.