Thousands Rally in Morocco to Honor Slain Hamas Leader, Protest Israel Ties

Following the call for a "day of rage" launched by Hamas on Friday for the burial of its leader, killed two days earlier in an attack attributed to Israel by the Islamist movement and Tehran, the National Action Group for Palestine, bringing together left-wing formations and the Islamist Party of Justice and Development organized a rally in Rabat.

Thousands of Moroccans thus took to the center of the capital on Saturday to support the Palestinian people and denounce normalization with Israel. They all waved Palestinian flags, portraits of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and a cardboard coffin bearing his effigy. They marched to the Parliament, black and white keffiyehs on their shoulders. "Greetings from Rabat to our friends in Gaza and the Qassam (Hamas armed wing)," they cried. "The people want an end to normalization," they chanted. These messages are also visible on their banners. Some protesters even went so far as to burn the Israeli flag.

For Halima Hilali, a 64-year-old protester, Ismail Haniyeh was a leader of Palestine, "He is a symbol that pushes us to demonstrate." The sexagenarian will add: the war in Gaza "is a shame for humanity that does nothing." Nabil Nasseri, 42, from Salé, a city adjacent to Rabat, agrees: "Demonstrating is the least we can do to help our Palestinian brothers, I think all Muslims should do it." And to add: "We cannot have relations with a group of criminals, we hope the end of relations" with Israel. The assassination of Haniyeh will not go unpunished. Hamas and Tehran intend to avenge his death.

Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and the Islamist movement, many Moroccans and political parties have expressed their support for Palestine and called on Morocco, which restored its diplomatic relations with the Hebrew state in December 2020 under the aegis of the United States in exchange for the American recognition of the Moroccanness of the Sahara, to cut ties with Tel Aviv as the kingdom had done in 2000 in reaction, in particular, to Israel’s brutality during the second Intifada.