Moroccan activists, prominent figures call on Rabat to cut ties with Tel Aviv
Dozens of Moroccan political figures, activists and academics have called on the government to sever diplomatic relations with Israeli regime amid Tel Aviv crackdown on the Palestinians.
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Israeli regime and Morocco signed a US-sponsored deal in December 2020 to normalize ties, exchange ambassadors, and have subsequently agreed on several military, education and economic pacts.
On Friday, more than 100 Moroccan figures in academia, human rights groups and wider society called in a petition for an end to these pacts, as Israel presses ahead with its policies against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
They condemned Israel's "military occupation of Palestine" and demanded "the severance of any relationship with the Israeli regime and any relationship with the apartheid regime that occupies Palestine".
The number of Palestinians killed by Israelis so far this year rose on Thursday to at least 87, including 16 children. It's the bloodiest start to a year since 2000, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
In recent months, Israeli forces have increased their raids on the Palestinian towns of Jenin and Nablus, north of the occupied West Bank, to arrest or kill Palestinians who participated in protests against the occupation.
The signatories said that Rabat severing ties with Israel would put the country "on the side of justice and international legitimacy" and reflect "the deep aspirations of Moroccans and their historical attachment to the cause of the liberation of Palestine".
They said that in light of "the deteriorating situation of the Palestinian cause, and the positions that call for the annihilation of the Arabs, the demolition of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the extremism of the Israeli government" Morocco should cut its ties with Israel.
Some members of the current far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have encouraged settlers to storm the Al-Aqsa compound, offending Palestinians and Muslims, and stirred their followers to shout "Death to Arabs" in mass marches.
Among the names of the signatories were Khadija Ryadi, a human rights defender and winner of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights 2013; Mohamed Bensaid Ait Idder, a veteran politician who fought against French colonialism; Mustafa al-Moatasem, a member of the NGO group National Action Group to Support Palestine; Nabila Mounib, an academic and secretary general of the Unified Socialist Party, and Farida Benlyazid, a novelist and film director.
