Morocco's former PM Benkirane condemns 'rush for normalisation with Israel'

Abdelilah Benkirane, Morocco’s former Prime Minister and the head of the Islamist moderate party Justice and Development (PJD), has condemned the 'rush' of the Kingdom’s institutions to support normalizing ties with Israel.

“We renew the alert to the dangers of the normalization process on Moroccan society and its cultural fabric, and we denounce the rush [to normalisation] that afflicted some people and cultural, educational, economic and religious bodies” read a press statement released on Monday, following the party's national assembly’s meeting.

Benkirane also attacked over the weekend the Moroccan printed newspaper AlAhdath Almaghribia over 'Zionist content'.

During a meeting with his party’s members, Benkiran called the newspaper ‘Zionist’, ‘intruder’, adding that it ‘does not represent the country.’

The socialist-leaning newspaper published an exclusive interview with Israeli National Security Chief Meir Ben-Shabbat following Morocco’s normalisation of ties with Israel in December 2020.

Following Benkiran's accusations, the Moroccan Syndicate of the press said Benkirane's statements were ‘an act unworthy of a political leader’ and 'very dangerous' as they explicitly incite ‘hatred, violence, and intimidation.’

The controversial political leader’s new statements came during the visit of the Israeli Minister of Economy Orna Barbivai to Rabat.

Morocco’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Riad Mazur, and his Israeli counterpart Orna Barbivai signed Monday a deal for unprecedented economic cooperation between the two countries.

This is the third visit of an Israeli official to Morocco after the visit of Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz last November.

Morocco was the fourth Arab country to normalize ties with Israel in 2020 under US auspices. 

Rabat had previously established ties with Tel Aviv, after the signing of the Oslo peace agreement in 1993. Following the Palestinian uprising (Intifada) in 2000, The Kingdom decided to cut off its newly established relationship with Israel.

The Moroccan-Israeli 'peace agreement' was signed under the leadership of the PJD’s former leader Saadeddine El Othmani. 

At the time, the country's Prime minister, El Othmani met with the Israeli and American diplomats in Rabat’s palace and announced officially the establishment of ties with Israel in December 2020.

The Moroccan state sealed the deal while labelling it a patriotic diplomatic step that serves its interests in the Western Sahara conflict, as the US recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed territory in exchange for normalization with Israel. 

The normalization exacerbates the conflicts inside the modest Islamist party, which swept the polls in 2011 elections following the uprising pro-reform protests in the Kingdom in the same year. 

After a decade in power, PJD lost the majority in September 8 elections last year with only 13 seats. Some observers linked its defeat to its inconsistency on the question of relations with Israel

Following the party's stark defeat, Benkirane was called back to the leadership of the Islamist PJD.

Without openly condemning the Moroccan-Israeli ties, Benkirane and his allies in the party said they will always side with the Palestinian resistance against ‘Zionist occupation.'