'Judaism is not Zionism': Moroccan anti-Zionist group decries Israel's 'brownwashing' in Morocco

Moroccan Pro-Palestine activists held an urgent press conference on Monday to condemn the escalating normalisation with Israel, days after the Jewish community in the Moroccan kingdom hosted a celebration of Israel's independence. 

"To shed light on the dangerous and unprecedented developments of the Zionist infiltration of the country, the National Action Group for Palestine organised a press conference on Monday, 9 May," announced the Moroccan National Action Group for Palestine.

At the headquarters of the group in the capital Rabat, various anti-Zionist activists took the stage to warn against Israel's attempts to blur the lines between the religion of Judaism and the ideology of Zionism; two concepts, the activists stressed, that are different.

"The Zionist agenda tries to convert what it is left of the Jewish community in Morocco to Zionism," Aziz Hanawi, General Secretary of the National Action Group for Palestine, said during the press conference.

The anti-Zionist activist stressed that Jewish people in the Kingdom are Moroccan citizens and Israel should stop treating them as its abroad community.

The activist's statements came days after the celebrations of Israel's "independence" in Morocco by the Jewish community in the kingdom for the first time in decades.

In collaboration with the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Moroccan Jewish community, amounting to around 2,000, held a prayer service, a holiday meal and a musical performance in Marrakech to mark the occasion on 5 May.

Members of the community reportedly sang Israeli songs in Hebrew and blew the shofar. More than 100 participants also sang the "Hatikva", Israel's national anthem, reported the Jerusalem Post.

WZO qualified the event as "a miracle" that would not be possible without the Moroccan-Israeli normalisation. 

"The State of Israel is a continuing miracle. The fact that we can celebrate Israel's independence in Morocco proves that the miracle of the revival finds new paths every year," Neria Meir, head of WZO's Department of Zionist Activities in the Diaspora, told the Jerusalem Post

In 2020, Morocco normalised ties with Israel in a brokered deal with the US that granted Rabat recognition of the Kingdom's sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara by the United States.

Since the normalisation, Moroccan and Israeli states have actively relied on the Jewish-Moroccan culture asset to justify their controversial relationship.

Morocco was once the thriving heart of the largest Jewish community in the Middle East and North African region, counting for about a quarter million. Meanwhile, about one million Jewish people with Moroccan roots live in Israel today. 

The two communities remain widely attached to Moroccan culture, traditions, and costumes.

The Moroccan National Action Group for Palestine is expected to take to the streets on Sunday to commemorate Nakba Day which marks the 1948 forced expulsion of nearly 800,000 Palestinians from their homes by Zionist gangs.