Moroccan students demand end to academic ties with Israel

The petition, signed Wednesday by 1,256 students and graduates of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in the central city of Ben Guerir, called on the university administration to “sever ties with Israeli partners involved in war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people,” according to their statement.

The signatories said that they were invited to a dialogue and held a meeting with a university representative, who indicated that the university refuses to cut ties with its Israeli partners.

“Our university has not only engaged in normalization but has also been a leader in establishing partnerships and hosting high-level delegations,” said the statement.

“The university created a high-ranking position dedicated to handling Israeli partnerships, which is an act of absurdity and provocation."

The statement said the partnerships involve eight Israeli universities and higher education institutions, which include nearly all the universities in Israel.

The partnerships in question are with Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, Western Galilee Academic College, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Reichman University, and Sapir Academic College, according to the statement.

Morocco was the fourth Arab country to agree to normalize ties with the Israeli regime in 2020 after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of the Gaza Strip lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

More than 37,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 86,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.