The square and the tower

The fallout of the relapse into conflict between Israel and Palestine, triggered by the attack carried out by Hamas on 7^th of October, is widely reverberating across the Middle East and North Africa, deeply undermining recently acquired assumptions and shaking newly found certainties. The disproportionate response of Tel Aviv, which has caused the massive displacement of the population in the Gaza Strip and is raising serious doubts about its future governance status, has triggered a massive outcry in the Arab world, for once bridging the gap between regional rivals under the banner of the revived Palestinian cause.

Arab leaders across the regional divide between normalisation and revisionism have certainly felt the pressure of the popular mobilisation that has inundated the streets on a scale only seen during the 2011 uprisings. Protests and demonstrations have also been held in Morocco, which only in 2020 joined the Abraham Accords and re-established diplomatic ties with Israel under the aegis of the Trump administration, prompt to recognize Rabat’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, a decision unchanged by US President Biden. Since then, Israeli Moroccan relations have flourished, spanning from tourism and trade to defence procurement.

In spite of this deepening partnership, that also exacerbates frail ties in the Maghreb by contributing to widening the gap between anti-normalisation stalwart Algeria and Morocco, massive rallies against Israel’s military operation in Gaza have been frequently held in Casablanca, Rabat and the main urban centres of the kingdom. Led by Jewish-Moroccan Siom Assidon, who also happen to be the co-founder of the Moroccan branch of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Movement against Israel, the Front marocaine de soutien à la Palestine et contre la normalisation (FMSPCN) acted as an umbrella-group for activists, students and union representatives.

Former ruling Parti de la justice et du développement (PJD) also featured, represented by its youth wing Group d’action nationale pour la Palestine. Nevertheless, its record on the normalisation process is at best controversial since Morocco joined the Abraham Accords during the mandate of former Prime Minister and PJD secretary Saadeddine el-Othmani. His successor at the helm of the Islamist party, former Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, has also been outspoken in his criticism towards the normalisation, only to be reminded by the Makhzen that foreign policy decisions in Morocco are a prerogative of His Majesty the King Mohammed VI.

Since the resumption of hostilities between Hamas and Israel, however, the monarch’s position had also to reflect the significant change in perception of the Moroccan public opinion over the Palestinian cause. The indefinite postponement of the visit to Morocco of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, unthinkable in the current circumstances; and the rescheduling of second Negev Forum expected to be held in Morocco, represents just the natural consequences of the changing nature of the Israeli Moroccan ties in the aftermath of the war in Gaza. A bilateral relation that, in the eyes of the Makhzen, needs a recalibration that would strike a balance between the need of preserving the gains of the normalisation process and relieve the pressure coming from the square.