Morocco's PJD, party that signed Israel normalisation deal, invites Hamas to its congress

Senior Hamas officials are expected to arrive in Morocco this week for a political congress hosted by the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), marking an unusual public visit by the Palestinian group to a country that maintains diplomatic ties with Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

The invitation, extended by the PJD, comes as the once-ruling party seeks to distance itself from the normalisation deal it signed with Israel in 2020.

The congress, set to begin on 26 April in Rabat, will open with the participation of Hamas representatives.

Since Israel's war on Gaza erupted in October 2023, Turkey has been the only state with official ties to Israel that have publicly hosted Hamas figures not for official negotiation purposes. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to sever all ties with Israel shortly after in November 2024.

However, Hamas members' visit to Morocco is not upon an invitation by an official entity in the North African kingdom, since PJD doesn't take part in the government.

Nevertheless, news of the visit has stirred debate across Moroccan social media, where some critics have urged the interior ministry to cancel the event.

"It is a great honour for us," PJD leader Abdelilah Benkirane said on Saturday during a meeting of the party's General Secretariat.

"Those who objected to Hamas being invited should be taken to court. His Majesty the King has declared that the Palestinian cause is as important as our national cause."

The invitees notably do not include Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch. Party officials cited a divergence of values as the reason for his exclusion.

With just a year to go before legislative elections, the PJD's move is widely seen as an effort to reconnect with its base and tap into the prevailing national mood, which has grown increasingly opposing to ties with Israel since the start of its genocide in Gaza.

In 2020, then-PJD Prime Minister Saadeddine El-Othmani signed onto the US-brokered Abraham Accords, establishing formal diplomatic ties with Israel in exchange for American recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara.

The deal outraged many within the PJD's grassroots, long opposed to normalisation, and contributed to the party's spectacular collapse in the 2021 elections, when it lost over 100 seats and retained just 13.

El-Othmani resigned shortly after, paving the way for Benkirane's return to the political stage.

Since then, Benkirane has called the normalisation "a mistake" and has repeatedly urged El-Othmani to apologise to Moroccans.

The PJD has tried to burnish its pro-Palestine credentials by attempting to join the country's strong pro-Palestine movement through the Unification and Reform Movement, a group affiliated with the party.

However, without openly naming the PJD, the Moroccan Front for Supporting Palestine and Against Normalisation accused "a body responsible for signing normalisation with the Zionist entity" for attempting to join forces with the movement.

The Front rejected the move outright, saying in a statement that "inserting the name of the local Front into a call by the group was part of a media campaign to mislead public opinion."

Protests and rallies in Morocco, often marked by the burning and stomping of Israeli flags, have already prompted Israeli officials to publicly call for bans and investigations.

Young protesters often dress as members of Hamas's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, while celebrating the group's resistance against the Israeli genocide.

On 20 April, hundreds gathered in Tangier, north Morocco, to protest against Maersk ships allegedly carrying F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, chanting slogans against El-Othmani and accusing him of betrayal.

While authorities have generally allowed demonstrations criticising Israel, activists say security forces have, at times, cracked down on protests near the US embassy and at the country's ports.

Several pro-Palestine demonstrations have been dispersed outside Carrefour supermarkets, and a number of activists have faced legal proceedings since October 2023.

This will not be the first time that senior PJD figures have engaged with Hamas. In 2021, just months after signing the normalisation deal, El-Othmani hosted the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Rabat, a move that failed to stem the party's electoral collapse.

Two years later, in May 2023, El-Othmani met again with Hamas leaders in Doha, including Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal and Mousa Abu Marzouk.

Despite growing public opposition, Morocco's Ministry of Foreign Affairs argues that maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel does not necessarily mean supporting Tel Aviv policies.

Moroccan officials have condemned the scale of Israel's war on Gaza and repeatedly called for a ceasefire, but have stopped short of severing ties or shuttering the Israeli liaison office in Rabat.