A sight that had not been seen in the streets of Rabat for 20 years: A large public protest against Israeli military actions in Gaza and in solidarity with the Palestinians occurred on Sunday, October 15. The demonstration attracted "several hundred thousand people," according to the organizers, the Moroccan Front in Support of Palestine and Against Normalization (FMSPCN), which represents some 20 parties, unions and associations, and the National Action Group for Palestine, close to the Islamist Justice and Development Party. "There were more than 300,000 people in the streets," reported Abdullah Abaakil, elected to the Casablanca council under the Parti Socialiste Unifié, who noted a "much larger turnout than during the demonstrations against the war in Iraq, in 2003."
"The people want the criminalization of normalization," chanted the demonstrators, denouncing the Palestinian deaths – more than 2,770, according to the latest provisional toll on Monday evening – and the resumption of official relations between Morocco and Israel enacted in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords. "We demand the closure of the Israeli embassy and the cessation of all relations with Israel," said Sion Assidon, a member of the FMSPCN secretariat, which is planning further demonstrations in the coming days, "depending on the evolution of the situation in Gaza."
A reinforced police presence was visible this weekend in the vicinity of Casablanca's synagogues and Jewish schools and cultural establishments, where the vast majority of the 3,000 or so Moroccans of Jewish faith live. Against this backdrop, the US embassy in Morocco issued an alert on Friday, calling on its citizens to "exercise vigilance," "avoid demonstrations and crowds" and "stay alert in places frequented by tourists/Westerners."
'A breakdown does not seem conceivable'
As protests in Morocco gain ground, the Israeli army's response to the bloody Hamas attacks on several locations in the Jewish state, which left over 1,300 people dead on Saturday, October 7, is putting the relationship between Morocco and Israel to the test. Since the attacks, the kingdom has been extremely cautious, even distancing itself from Israel. While King Mohammed VI, who chairs the Al-Quds Committee, has not commented on the issue, the Moroccan foreign ministry gave an equivocal response in a press release issued on the day of the attacks, without mentioning Israel and referring to "military actions in the Gaza Strip," even though they took place on Israeli territory.
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