Moroccans fill streets in protest of normalisation with Israel, celebrate new hope for 'Palestine's liberation'

All over Morocco, the streets echoed on Sunday with chants for "Normalisation with Israel must fall" in solidarity with Palestinians' right to decolonise their land.

At 6 P.M on Sunday, 9 October, Moroccans took to the streets of the main kingdom's cities following a call by the Moroccan Front Against Normalisation, a pro-Palestinian local organisation established by anti-normalisation activists after Morocco signed a normalising deal with Israel in 2020.

In Casablanca, Sraghna Square was packed with activists and citizens who came to celebrate "the new birth of the Palestinian cause" after Hamas' attack, dubbed the "Al-Aqsa Flood", against Israeli illegal settlements.

"This achievement plants a new hope and shuttered the illusion of the alleged Israeli power normalisers promote," Abdel Majid Raddi, a member of the Moroccan Front Against Normalisation, told The New Arab.

"Our resilience against normalisation is now stronger than ever," added Raddi

Protesters chanted "Normalisation must fall" and "Freedom for Palestine" while holding signs reading "This land does not accommodate two identities, either we or we." Similar scenes emerged in Tangier and Rabat.

البيضاء تهتز الآن
هكذا يلتحم المغاربة بشعبنا الفلسطيني pic.twitter.com/4QQa6SKUsH

— hassan bennajeh (@h_bennajeh) October 8, 2023

The protest witnessed the presence of many political parties as Palestine remains one of the rarest issues that bring socialists and Islamists together in Morocco. 

Meanwhile, many citizens joined the protest with their kids, chanting passionately about "a Free Palestine";  "A dream closer than ever," remarked Khadija, a mother of two kids, who joined Sunday's protest.

The pro-Palestine protests coincided with a Raja club home game, which turned into a march of Raja Ultra fans that shook Casablanca's streets with their signature chant, "Rajawi Falastini (Palestinian)."

The protest continued in the stadium, with the football fans singing against Israel's occupation and standing in a ten-minute silence for Palestinian martyrs.

Meanwhile, Morocco's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its deep concern over the deteriorating situation and the outbreak of military actions in the Gaza Strip and condemned the targeting of civilians by any party.

Over social media, many have criticised Rabat's official statements on the events as an attempt to both side the conflict and deny Palestinians the right to resist the occupation.

جمهور الرجاء العالمي من مباراة يوم امس#رجاوي_فلسطيني #طوفان_الاقصي #طوفان_القدس #FreePalastine pic.twitter.com/FlPuCpp4g6

— مُـــراد (@mouradben_H) October 9, 2023

For opposition, the Party of Progress and Socialism held the "Zionist entity fully responsible for the military and escalatory turn of the situation, including the actual and real threats to regional peace," in a statement to local media.

Even some majority parties took a different stand than Rabat's official statement. 

Hamad Al-Tawizi, a member of the majority party of Authenticity and Modernity, argued that this escalation was expected, adding that "the occupation must be confronted, and there cannot be an occupied people and remain without rising up," he told local media.

Despite normalisation with Israel, many politicians, activists and citizens continue to oppose ties with the Israeli occupation, which many Moroccans consider "a betrayal of their values and of Palestinians." 

According to TNA's reporter in Gaza, Sally Ibrahim, Israel was caught off-guard by Hamas' "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" on Saturday. 

Besides launching rocket fire, the Palestinian faction sent its fighters from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, where they attacked military targets, briefly took control of some Israeli settlements and took at least 100 civilians and soldiers hostage for future prisoner exchanges. 

Israel relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip early Monday as fighting between the Israeli military and the Palestinian group Hamas continued to rage around the enclave.

More than 700 Israelis have been killed so far, the Israeli army said Monday, with more than 1,200 people wounded, many critically.

Officials in Gaza have reported at least 493 Palestinian deaths in the besieged coastal enclave of about 2.3 million people and more than 2,750 wounded.