LThe same flag, the same cause, the same affection, the same enemy. From Tripoli to Casablanca via Tunis and Algiers, the Maghreb streets were feverish in unison in favor of Palestine at a time of intense Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian colors flew on huge processions expressing their “solidarity” with the Gazans victims of “genocide”their anger against“Zionist enemy” And “ the complicity of the West ». Since the outbreak of the war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Maghreb of the people has shared the same emotion.
If it is not unprecedented – the crowds were also mobilized in support of the Palestinian intifadas of 1987 and 2000 or against the American intervention in Iraq in 2003 –, this union of the populations of the region around the same imaginary contrasts sharply with the disunity of their States, deeper than ever. Schism at the top, fusion at the base.
The united Maghreb is asserting itself in the streets – in a way that is certainly more psychological than political – failing to establish itself in the general staffs. With Palestine, football catalyzes this same aspiration to transcend national divides. During the World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022, the Algerian public applauded the victories of the Moroccan team, while at the same time diplomatic tension between Algiers and Rabat was at its height.
Deep discord between Algiers and Rabat
The contrast is certainly striking with a fragmented Maghreb of States, rife with rivalries. We knew the utopia of a united region – wasn’t the ancestor of Algerian nationalism called the North African Star? – well and truly buried in the aftermath of independence, once the common enemy of French colonialism had been removed.
Structures had nevertheless been put in place, demonstrating a desire to maintain an interstate dialogue. This was the case of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), created in 1989 by Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. With a general secretariat based in Rabat, the organization is languishing in impotence. Its last peak dates back to… 1994.
The united Maghreb of States will not have survived the great discord between Algiers and Rabat. First crystallized around their border dispute (the “sand war” of 1963) – a poisonous legacy of the route of French Algeria – the rivalry has been relaunched since 1975 around the conflict in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony whose Morocco has achieved 80% control.
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