Moroccans protest Israel ties, show Palestine solidarity two years after normalisation deal signed

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Morocco's cities on Saturday to demonstrate against their country’s normalised relations with Israel, two years after a US-brokered deal to establish formal ties between the two countries was signed.

The protests took place in 30 different cities across Morocco, including Tangier, Agadir, Meknes, and Rabat, said organisers Moroccan Front for Supporting Palestine and Against Normalisation, a coalition of over a dozen political and human rights organisations.

Protesters chanted "The people want to bring down normalisation", as well as pro-Palestine slogans. They also raised banners with messages in support of Palestine and waved the Palestinian national flag.

Images circulated online also showed Israeli flags being burned at the protests.

In a statement, the organisers said the demonstrators had expressed their "unconditional support for the Palestinian resistance" and condemned the government's "haste to fall into the arms of the enemy under the pretext of bartering the Palestinian issue with our national issues".

The demonstrations were organised to show that the Palestinian cause remains in the Moroccan people's conscience, as demonstrated by the national team’s football players during the Qatar World Cup, the Front’s coordinator Tayeb Medmad told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Morocco agreed in December 2020 to normalise ties with Israel, signing the US-brokered Abraham Accords in return for Washington recognition of Rabat’s sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Moroccans from across the political spectrum regularly protest their country's ties with Israel.

The country's former Prime Minister Saad Eddine el-Othmani said last month that he had signed the controversial deal 'under pressure' by higher authority.

Rabat and Tel Aviv have since gone on to sign a number of deals in military, trade, and science.

The deal drew widespread condemnation from the Arab world and Palestinians worldwide, who have described the move as a "stab in the back" for Palestinians as Israel continues to occupy and inflict violence on the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.