In Morocco, public opinion faces the normalization of relations with Israel

“I am Rajaoui, I am Palestinian, I will not leave you alone in Gaza. » This song of the supporters of Raja CA, one of the two football clubs of Casablanca, Younès Khaye, 20, knows it by heart. He wrote it on his bac paper three weeks ago, as an answer. He sings it in the stands of the stadiums, an outlet for all the disputes of the Moroccan popular youth. “She is the voice of the people! », assures the young man met in the district of Derb Sultan, stronghold of green Boysthe supporters whose green tags, the color of the club, cover the walls of each lane.

“At the last game of Raja, we took out the Palestinian flag to show that we do not agree with the government which collaborates with the Zionist regime”, continues Younès Khaye, with reference to the normalization of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel in December 2020 within the framework of the Abraham Accords – an agreement between the Jewish state and several Arab countries negotiated by the United States. Since then, visits by Israeli officials to the kingdom have followed one another and cooperation has been forged in all directions in the military, security, economic, commercial and tourist fields.

Further on, on the terrace of a café, Mustapha*, 69, agrees. It’s been a long time since he waved the Palestinian flag at the stadium or in the street, and yet: “All Moroccans defend Palestine, he says. It’s a just cause that I will defend until the death! » The famous photo of the Moroccan team posing with the Palestinian flag during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar remains etched in his memory, as do the stands flooded with the colors of Palestine. For him, “The government has nothing to do with the opinion of the people”.

” Treason “

Only 31% of Moroccans would be in favor of normalization, according to a survey published in 2022 by the non-partisan research network Arab Barometer. With the accession to power in Israel of ultra-nationalist currents, hostile to talks with the Palestinians, and the repression in the occupied West Bank, this gap between the ruling class and public opinion could widen further. “The news is uncomfortable, it stiffens. Many people are appalled by Israel’s policy,” observes journalist Jamal Amiar, author of the book Morocco, Israel and Moroccan Jews (Bibliomonde, 2022).

” Treason “ for some, normalization with Israel is not always perceived as such. When he talks about it, in a small square in Derb Sultan, 18-year-old Samir Assoli immediately evokes the role of the king, Mohammed VI, who chairs the Al-Quds committee responsible for watching over the Holy City of Jerusalem. “He sends money there; he supports Palestine,” he says. “Our country is a mediator: it defends a two-state solution”, adds, further, Zinedine Katim, in her sixties. In his eyes, allying with Israel and defending Palestine is not incompatible: “And it is normal for Morocco to defend its interests. »

Although a majority of the population opposes it, Morocco is ranked second among the countries in North Africa and the Middle East most favorable to normalization (after Sudan) by the Arab Barometer, which explains this relative adhesion by the “strategic advantages” that Moroccans can perceive from this rapprochement. Starting with the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara – another largely unifying cause – which Rabat obtained from Washington in the wake of the Abraham Accords.

“A good number of Moroccans discreetly rally to the official position of the regime, which makes normalization a pragmatic choice serving the interests of the country: territorial integrity, but also security interests, in a tense regional context with Algeria, and economic interests , emphasizes Aziz Chahir, teacher-researcher in political science in Rabat. This fringe of opinion is not against the rapprochement if it can have favorable socio-economic impacts. »

“Strong Bonds”

Acceptance of normalization also feeds on a common history between the two countries that has no equivalent with other Arab states. “In Israel, there are nearly 800,000 Jews from Morocco who have kept strong ties with the land of their ancestors and Moroccan culture is very present there, underlines the journalist Jamal Amiar. In the Cherifian kingdom, the presence of Judaism, which dates back more than two thousand years, permeates Moroccan culture. »

This legacy was endorsed by the 2011 Constitution, which recognizes “The Hebrew Tributary” of Moroccan identity. It is very present today in official speeches to show that standardization is part of a historical continuity. But not without risk to public opinion, warns Saadia Elouallous, a pro-Palestinian activist: “Why attach to our Jewish component, which is undeniable, normalization, if not to create confusion between Judaism and Zionism, therefore between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism? It is precisely on this ground that they want to take us, to make us vulgar anti-Semites. »

The fact remains that, in the collective imagination, “the Alawite kings have always been privileged friends of the Jews and of Israel”, Aziz Chahir analysis. The idea that King Mohammed V was a “protector” of Moroccan Jews under the Vichy regime is rooted there. In 1986, the meeting between Hassan II and the Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Pérès marked the spirits, like the bonds which the sovereign maintained with the Moroccan Jewish community, until naming a political adviser, André Azoulay.

“Hassan II never ceased to play on both registers, not cutting ties with Israel while defending the Palestinian cause, reports the academic. Its policy of rapprochement in small steps, like so many trial balloons launched to gauge public opinion, has prepared it for future normalization. » But without this red line, with the connotation of treason, being crossed.

“Zionist Pavilion”

In 2020, the Abraham Accords put an end to six decades of unacknowledged relations, during which meetings and cooperation, particularly military and commercial, took place on the sly. Shown in broad daylight, and stronger than ever, the ties between Morocco and Israel are today mobilizing an audience of pro-Palestinian activists and sympathizers opposed to normalization.

Even if “their ability to mobilize is curbed because of the weakening of opposition political parties and trade unions, the propaganda of the official media, the decline in public freedoms”, underlines Abdelmoughit Benmessaoud Tredano, director of the Moroccan journal of political and social sciencesauthor of several publications on Palestine. ” It is far, he recalls, the time of the millionaire demonstrations of support for the cause that Morocco experienced in the 1980s and 1990s, until the beginning of the 2000s.

Regularly, the Moroccan Front in support of Palestine and against normalization – a coalition of 19 political parties, unions and associations – organizes sit-ins by a few dozen people in the country. Like on June 6, in front of Parliament, where a Morocco-Israel friendship group had just been formed. A month earlier, in front of the Agricultural Show in Meknes, against the presence of a Zionist flag. Or on June 10, in front of a Carrefour supermarket in Casablanca, to call for a boycott of the brand. “The repression is almost systematic, denounces Saadia Elouallous, member of the Front. With each action, our flags are taken away from us, as if no Palestinian signs were needed in the public space.. It is perhaps only in the stadiums that it is tolerated. »