As we have already underlined in the introduction, the beginning of the gradual occupation of Palestine under British mandate and its later partition to create the State of Israel predated Morocco’s independence. Urbanite educated Moroccans were aware of Palestine even before the emergence of Moroccan nationalism in the 1930s. Consequently, it is very natural that, after the departure of France in 1956, all the components of the Moroccan polity, including the monarchy, political parties, labor unions, student associations, and other civil society groups, made Palestine a central priority in their cultural, social, and political agendas. These positions were translated into the visit of King Mohammed V (1927-1961) to Jerusalem in 1960 (see Fig. 1). Accompanied by King Hussein Ibn Talal of Jordan, Mohammed V solidified Morocco’s post-independence relationship with the Palestinians through this connection to al-Quds (Jerusalem). Mohammed V was known to have hosted Gamal Abdel-Nasser in Rabat and to have had a very soft spot for Arab nationalism. This historic visit underscored Morocco’s enduring connection to the Holy City and established the political, cultural and religious foundations of the future official discourse that has since foregrounded Jerusalem as one of the reasons for Morocco’s support to Palestinians.
Under Mohammed V’s short rule after independence, Morocco had an active policy to retain its Jews. Reflecting the power dynamics in the country before the establishment of the State that caused the “years of lead,” which the official Equity and Reconciliation Commission has investigated, Mohammed V encouraged Moroccan Jews to remain in the country. Because of the work of the Alliance Israelite Universelle’s school system, the number of educated Jews was very high. There were Jewish professionals everywhere, and the country’s economy depended on many of them. So, the government of Abdallah Ibrahim made retaining Moroccan Jews an official policy. In response to Zionist organizations’ calls for Moroccan Jews to emigrate, King Mohammed V expressed his disappointment in and anger about the decision of a sizable number of Moroccan Jews to leave their homeland. During a meeting in the 1950s with Joe Golan, an Israeli representative of Nahum Goldman, President of the World Jewish Congress, King Mohammed V voiced his concern about the future of Moroccan Jewish families in Israel. Daniel Ben Simon captures this encounter in his biography The Immigrant: From Morocco to Israel. Golan recounts that the King remarked:
The Jews have lived in the most blessed country in the Maghreb for thousands of years, long before the advent of Islam. They have thrived, lived among us, and continue to occupy a respected place in society. Why do they want to leave now, just when our country has won its independence, and our people have been liberated? The Jews are an inseparable part of us. What kind of wild adventure are they going on, to a place plagued by conflict and uncertainty? […] I have heard that the families you take are sent to stark, unwelcoming camps, most of them far from cities. I assume that the camps are temporary, and that the immigrants live there until housing and work are found for them. Life there must be very hard. The people must feel like foreigners in the country you claim belongs to them. They don’t know the language or the customs. That means suffering for people who have everything they need to live lives of honor and respect… We watch them go with anxiety and worry about their fate. May Allah preserve them and forgive them for all the mistakes they are making. If I stop immigration now, I will be helping to destroy families, and I am more interested in family unity. The Jews of Morocco are my children. They remain Moroccans, and I will continue to protect them, wherever they may be. If they want to return, they will be able to at any time (Ben Simon, 2022, pp. 42-43).
Despite Abdallah Ibrahim’s government’s best efforts to curb Jewish emigration, many Zionist organizations, both official and clandestine, had already been established in the country. Their messianic message reached the furthest point in Morocco and created the psychological conditions for the departure of large numbers of Jews from both rural and urban areas. This prompted a group of Moroccan Jewish intellectuals and politicians to denounce what they termed the “Moroccan Jewish displacement” to Palestine on February 17, 1961, just a week before the death of King Mohammed V. They called on Muslims and Jews to unite against Zionist activities and the anti-Jewish campaigns led by some Moroccan newspapers.
Figure 1 King Mohammed V praying in the Al-Aqsa Mosque with King Hussein of Jordan, 1960, Credit Wikalat Bayt Mal Al-Quds al-Sharif.After Mohammed V’s premature and unexpected death on February 26, 1961, at the age of fifty-one, Morocco’s Israel-Palestine policy witnessed a major shift under son King Hassan II. Hassan II sacked Abdallah Ibrahim’s government, got rid of the strict immigration policy, eased the requirements for the obtention of collective passports, and oversaw the emigration of Moroccan Jews on mass. It is crucial to underline here the fact that this massive migration of Moroccan Jews happened in a political context of absence of democracy. Once political parties were weakened and power was taken from the government, Hassan II could orchestrate an internally unnegotiated policy that encouraged the departure of Moroccan Jews. Hassan II levered the Palestinian cause to serve his internal and foreign policy agendas; sometimes clashing with Moroccan civil society and other times taking the initiative from it, all in a way that indicates the complicated ways in which Palestine has since been a Moroccan issue.
While Hassan II participated in the emigration of Moroccan Jews and maintained covert relations with Israel, he was also at the forefront of the Arab states’ efforts to restore Palestinian rights. Particularly after the Arab Naksa (setback) of 1967, which cost the lives of tens of Moroccan soldiers who died in the Golan Heights while defending Syrian territory, al-Quds became the rallying cry for Hassan II and the Moroccan parties to support Palestine. Just a few months after Six-Day War in 1967, Hassan II met with Palestinian leaders in Agadir and pledged support for their aspiration for a Palestinian state. Meanwhile, a group of national leaders founded the Association for Supporting the Palestinian Struggle and chose Abou Bakr El Kadiri who served as its secretary general until the 1980s. On August 2, 1969, following the attempt to burn the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Hassan II convened an Islamic summit from September 22-25 in Rabat, leading to the establishment of the Islamic Conference (dubbed later Organization of Islamic Cooperation). This summit resulted in the creation of the al-Quds Committee, which was officially established at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Jeddah in 1975. In the meantime, Hassan II arrested Mahjoub Ben Seddik and sentenced him to jail for inciting him to act to protect Palestinians after 1967. Therefore, Hassan II’s relationship with Palestine cannot be understood without a methodology that looks both within and without to fully capture how he navigated the issue for his domestic reasons.
Many would argue that Hassan II gave himself enough latitude to play the role of the emissary between Palestinians, the Arab League, the Americans, and the Israelis. However, his involvement also focused on showcasing how he cared for al-Quds al-Sharif which summarized the entire cause in the official Moroccan media. For instance, when the mufti of Jerusalem came to Morocco in 1989, he requested a new set of carpets to replace the fraying ones Mohammed V had gifted to the mosque in 1960. As surprising as it may seem, Hassan II made this into a diplomatic win for him, and sponsored the making of new carpets by Moroccan artisans before they were shipped to Egypt, where they were stuck for months. Mohammed Tazi, Morocco’s Ambassador in Egypt, oversaw monthly negotiations with the Egyptian authorities in Cairo and provided regular updates to King Hassan II about the challenges encountered in delivering the carpets to al-Quds. Growing impatient with the delays, King Hassan II expressed frustration, questioning the extensive negotiations for mosque carpets and drawing parallels to the years Palestinians might need to reclaim their occupied lands. Despite Tazi’s reassurances, Hassan II expressed his worries that moths would damage the carpets before the Israeli government cleared them to be delivered. After one year and one month of a tripartite negotiation between Moroccan, Egyptian and Israeli authorities, with direct intervention from President Hosni Mubarak, the carpets finally were placed at the al-Aqsa mosque. The Mufti conveyed the City’s thanks to the king, allowing him to further deepen the idea that Jerusalem was the equivalent of the entire Palestine as it emerged in Morocco after 1967.
Bayt Mal Al-Quds was established as the financial arm of al-Quds Committee upon recommendation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in the aftermath of its meeting in 1995 in Ifrane, Morocco. The Bayt Mal Al-Quds Al-Sharif Agency has been operating as a non-profit social and humanitarian institution aimed at protecting Arab and Muslim rights in the Holy City. It supports and finances programs and projects in health, education, housing, and the preservation of the city’s religious and cultural heritage, requiring significant financial resources. Maybe a reflection of the post-Oslo Accord optimism about a final resolution that would restore Palestinian rights, this focus on financial and educational support shifted the rhetoric to training the people and building the infrastructure that were needed for the future state. Thus, the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Al-Sharif Agency, with significant financial support from Moroccan taxpayers’ money, funded and provided the know-how for the construction of the airports, schools, and universities in Gaza and Ramallah. For instance, Gaza’s Hassan II Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, which Israel destroyed during this ongoing war, was rebuilt with a $7.8 million donation from King Mohammed VI.
As we have already stated in the introduction, official intervention on the behalf of Palestine did not supersede Moroccan civic and political organizations’ action. In addition to the formation of the Moroccan Association for Supporting the Palestinian Struggle, Moroccan political parties and trade unions made Palestine a tenet of their May Day celebrations and collected money for Palestinians through subscriptions (FIG. 2). Moroccan civil society’s involvement in the support of the Algerian war was also reflected in the mobilization for Palestine. The same methods of financial and popular support could be found in the archives of this period. Newspapers and magazines covered the ongoing events in the region, and the radio and television usually aired songs that focused on Palestine, including by some of the bands that we discuss in our article on music for this issue. When Ariel Sharon made his provocative visit to the Dome of the Rock in 2000, sparkling the second Intifada also known as “intifāḍat al-aqṣā” (the Aqsa intifada), Moroccan hip-hop musicians captured the moment. Their output lashed out at everyone who should have helped support the Palestinians but did not. As a result of political and civic mobilization, Morocco officially closed Israel’s liaison office in Rabat.
Two years before Sharon’s visit to the Dome of the Rock, the National Action Group for Palestine and Iraq was created in 1998 as an independent, pluralistic body uniting members from various political backgrounds to coordinate Moroccan efforts to support Palestine. Led by Khalid Soufiani, a leftist lawyer, the group established itself as a key platform for mobilizing popular support, organizing large-scale demonstrations, and fostering solidarity with Palestine both nationally and internationally. The National Action Group for Palestine and Iraq has organized numerous million-person marches, mass protests, and events in support of Palestinian rights. In addition to popular mobilization, it has spearheaded practical initiatives to provide direct support to the Palestinian people. For example, the Moroccan Health Committee for Palestine, established under the group’s auspices, has sent delegations of doctors, pharmacists, and nurses with medical aid to Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq, reflecting the group’s commitment to alleviating humanitarian crises caused by occupation and conflict.
The group’s activism extends beyond humanitarian aid and public demonstrations. It has played a crucial role in raising awareness about what its members and activists highlighted as the dangers of the Moroccan state’s normalization with Israel. In 2010, the National Action Group, through its national secretariat, organized the National Forum against Normalization at the National Library in Rabat. This forum brought together civil society organizations, associations, unions, and media representatives, leading to the launch of the National Observatory against Normalization. This Observatory aims to monitor and combat all forms of economic, cultural, political, and diplomatic normalization with Israel. The National Charter against Normalization, adopted at the forum, underscores the group’s firm opposition to official normalization, viewing it as complicity in the crimes Israel has been committing against Palestinians and a betrayal of the Palestinian people’s cause. Prominent Moroccan figures and intellectuals, including Moroccan of Jewish descent like Sion Assidon and Edmond Amran El Maleh, have contributed to the group’s efforts, highlighting the moral and cultural dimensions of the struggle against normalization. These leaders emphasize that normalization with Israel not only supports an “unjust system” but also undermines the long history of “coexistence between Jews and Muslims” in Morocco. Their contributions reflect a popular and national belief that the Palestinian cause is intrinsically linked to the values of justice and dignity that transcend ideological fault lines. In 2013, the group discontinued the use of Iraq in its name to be fully dedicated to Palestine, reflecting the centrality of the Palestinian struggle to the broader Arab liberation movement.
Figure 2 Cover page of Palestine newspaper Issue 10, 1968. Credit: National Library of Morocco.On January 5, 2013, and following the Rabat Manifesto: The National Charter against Normalization (nidā’ al-ribāṭ: al-mīthāq al-waṭanī li-munāhadhat al-taṭbī‘, 2010), the Moroccan Observatory against Normalization (al-marsad al-maghribī li-munāhadhat al-taṭbī‘) was established in Rabat. Amazigh Ahmed Ouihmane, a former journalist in the al-Ittiḥād al-Ishtirākī daily newspaper and a staunch Arab-nationalist activist, was elected as its president. Abdelaziz Hanawi, who is also Amazigh from the same region as Ouihmane and a member of the Party of Justice and Development, was elected as the observatory’s secretary general. We insist on highlighting Ouihmane and Hanawi’s Amazigh identity in order to show that the widespread and misleading accusations that Imazighen are pro-occupation are far from the truth. Although Amazigh civil society is vibrant and diverse, these accusations seek to make Imazighen a monolith in order to tarnish their demands for cultural and linguistic rights through the door of Palestine. Under Ouihmane and Hanawi’s leadership, the Observatory began monitoring normalization activities in Morocco and publishing reports of names and organizations involved in activities in connection to Israel. In December 2013, after months of internal negotiation, the Moroccan Observatory against Normalization, along with members of Parliament, particularly from the Party of Justice and Development, put forward a bill to criminalize relations with Israel. The Party of Progress and Socialism and the Party of Authenticity and Modernity supported the bill, but they withdrew in still-unclear circumstances. Ouihmane and Hanawi continued their efforts against normalization until a broader national organization, named the Moroccan Front for Supporting Palestine and against Normalization, was established in 2021 in the aftermath of Morocco’s resumption of normalization with Israel.
While this brief introduction is enough to keep in mind as the readers read these primary sources, longer and more thorough studies are direly needed to fully explain this history to Anglophone readership. Morocco is not a monolithic country, and the way Moroccans and the Moroccan state dealt with the question of Palestine converged and diverged at different stages of this protracted occupation and conflict. Moroccan society nowadays lives in a state of divergence with the state, which has resumed and full normalized relations with Israel a strategic choice. The ongoing war on Gaza has shown the limits of this official choice and demonstrated that all the subterfuges that were presented to market it internally have been run roughshod by Israel. In this current context and facing internal pulci weekly protest against Israel, Morocco seems to have lost the diplomatic leverage it had gained under Hassan II’s rule because it put all its eggs in the Israeli-American basket.