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northOf course, it had to be Twitter again for Donald Trump to announce the latest news before everyone else. “Today is another historic advance,” proclaimed the President of the United States. “Our great friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations,” Trump wrote. His son-in-law Jared Kushner, whom he has employed as a consultant, reported at a specially convened press conference at the White House that the two states immediately opened offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv and promoted economic cooperation.
But the Moroccan-Israeli deal is not as sensational and surprising as Trump and his son-in-law presented it. The two countries have had good relations for decades and are historically linked. Morocco has been a candidate for normalization of relations with the Jewish state for months.
It is now the fourth Arab country to open embassies in Tel Aviv after the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan. For Rabat, ultimately, this is a formality because it already had contact offices in Israel. But the official move that Trump celebrates was not in vain. The president of the United States signed beforehand a proclamation by which the United States recognizes the controversial Western Sahara as a national territory of Morocco.
Success of Moroccan prestige in Western Sahara
For Rabat it is a diplomatic triumph that Western Sahara quickly annexed after the end of the Spanish colonial era in 1975. The Sahrawi liberation movement Polisario has been fighting for its own state with the generous support of neighboring Algeria ever since. To date, the status of Western Sahara, which stretches from the Algerian border to the Atlantic, has not been clarified by international law. The UN calls for a referendum in which the population decides on independence or affiliation with Morocco.
It was not until November that, after almost 30 years of ceasefire, there were again incidents between the Polisario and the Moroccan security authorities. The Saharawi militia had blocked the border crossing with Mauritania. Hundreds of trucks carrying basic items were stuck for weeks.
For Morocco, the American recognition of its claims on Western Sahara is a prestigious achievement. “Morocco’s serious, reliable and realistic autonomy plan is the ONLY basis for a just and lasting solution,” Trump wrote on Twitter. In 2007, Morocco proposed granting Western Sahara a statute of autonomy, comparable to the Spanish provinces of Catalonia and the Basque Country. A proposal that the Polisario rejected. A Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty is out of the question for them. But after the American recognition of Rabat’s territorial claims, the Sahrawis could soon face a fait accompli. The United States can exert its influence over votes in the UN Security Council.
The secret services work together continuously
In Morocco, only the Islamist parties refuse to enter into diplomatic relations with Israel. Already in August there was strong criticism from the ranks of the Justice and Development Party Co-Governor (PJD). Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani, in a meeting of the PJD, rejected all the speculations that would bring his country closer to Israel. “We reject any normalization of relations with the Zionist entity,” El Othamni said. An agreement would only “encourage the continued violation of Palestinian rights,” the head of government said.
But now everything has turned out very differently. Because in reality Morocco and Israel are closer than the PJD wants to admit. The secret services of both countries work together continuously. Morocco recently bought drones from Israel. We have been cooperating in the agricultural sector for years. There are also well-established communication channels at the diplomatic level. “It’s all so hypocritical,” says Kamal Hachkar, a Franco-Moroccan director. “It is claimed that there is no cooperation with Israel, but in reality it is very different.” For the 33-year-old who made films about Moroccan Jews, normalizing relations with Israel is a natural step. “You just have to think about the Jewish history of Morocco and how important it is to so many people in both countries.”
The first Jews arrived in Morocco with the Phoenicians. In the 15th century, Spanish Jews fled the persecution of the Catholic Kings Ferdinand II and Isabel I across the Mediterranean. During World War II, Morocco was once again a life saver. Ships carrying Jewish refugees were able to dock in the port city of Tangier. The then King Mohammed V refused to sign the “exceptional laws” of the French colonial power allied with the Nazis, thus preventing deportations to concentration camps. Until the middle of the 20th century, Morocco was the Arab country with the largest Jewish community with around 280,000 members. Today there are no more than 3,000.
Jewish history in Morocco
After World War II there were several waves of emigration. Most of the Jews went to Europe, North and South America, and very few went to Israel. Even today, hundreds of synagogues, cemeteries, and schools across the country bear witness to Jewish history. At the initiative of Mohammed VI. the buildings are extensively restored in order to preserve them for posterity. Every year, 50,000 people of the Jewish faith travel to Morocco, most of whom come from Israel.
They come to celebrate weddings, visit relatives, go on pilgrimages or simply get to know the land of their ancestors. More than a million people in Israel have Moroccan roots. They include recognized actors, singers, basketball players, rabbis, military officials, and politicians. In the current Israeli cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there are 12 ministers of Moroccan origin.
