Israel has a diplomatic liaison office in Rabat, but not a full-fledged embassy. Since March, Morocco has postponed convening the second Negev summit – the meeting of four Arab countries that recognize the Jewish state under the Abraham Accords – and postponed it again at the end of June. Bilateral ties, which resumed in December 2020 with the support of former US President Donald Trump during his final months in the White House, have developed rapidly in the areas of security and defence, economy and trade, tourism and culture. But the government in Rabat is still waiting for the Israeli executive to take the decisive step and recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony and disputed territory where the Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 1976.
Disagreements between the allies have prevented an increase in Israeli representation in Rabat, as Israel desires. It has also blocked a second Negev summit, named after the southern Israeli desert where the first meeting took place in 2022, and viewed Israel as a key political asset in breaking its isolation from Arab countries. So far, the debate has been shrouded in diffuse diplomatic language and conditioned by the regular outbreaks of violence between Israeli troops and Palestinian armed groups, such as those seen recently in Jenin. Finally, the head of Israeli diplomacy, Eli Cohen, put the cards on the table: Israel will recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara if Morocco agrees to the Negev summit once and for all.
“We are currently working on this matter and plan to make a final decision at the Negev Forum. “We are working on our position and I think the final decision will be made in September,” the foreign minister said in a meeting with foreign press in Jerusalem on July 3. Rabat hopes Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will officially express its position on Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory by opening a consulate in Laayoune or Dakhla, two enclaves in Western Sahara. Joe Biden’s administration has not challenged the recognition of sovereignty granted by his predecessor without the need to set up a diplomatic mission in Western Sahara, as 28 other states have already done, while Washington continues to seek normalization of relations between the Jewish state and the Jewish state is pushing the Arab countries.
The Negev Forum emerged hand-in-hand with Israel’s so-called government of change and then foreign minister, centrist leader Yair Lapid, forming a broad coalition backed by an Israeli Arab party. But that government was replaced by the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, with Prime Minister Netanyahu backed by the anti-Arab far right and the West Bank’s largest party of Jewish settlers.
Normally moderate Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have condemned the Israeli military operation in Jenin and called for a return to dialogue with the Palestinians to prevent further escalation. Morocco has gone even further, calling on the international community to intervene to “stop this people’s aggression”. [the Palestinians] and its territory,” Moroccan Foreign Minister Naser Burita said a day after his Israeli counterpart set the diplomatic parameters for recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Burita reiterated Rabat’s condemnation of “the multiple Israeli aggressions in Jenin.”
As conflict in the Holy Land flares up again, Morocco has had to strike a balancing act to maintain the strategic alliance with Israel while cementing its traditional Arab support for the Palestinian cause in Jerusalem, which King Mohammed VI had promised. within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at the head of the Al-Quds Committee.
“Public opinion in the Arab world may be silent, but it is following developments closely. The recent postponement of the Negev summit should come as no surprise, and a fourth postponement could occur if West Bank violence continues and the Israeli government authorizes the construction of new settlements,” wrote Jamal Amiar, a Moroccan journalist and writer, in one Opinion column in the Jerusalem Post on Sunday. In recent weeks, Israel has launched a diplomatic offensive in Morocco to strengthen rapprochement, but the political will has not yet translated into a formal declaration.
Military and trade advantages
The strategic alliance with Israel has given Morocco military advantages, such as the acquisition of the latest generation of drones and missiles and access to intelligence information, which have changed the balance of power with respect to the Polisario Front and Algeria, which fully supports the West’s independence movement Sahara Desert. The technological advantage of the Moroccan army over the Algerian superiority in troops and ground weapons has been confirmed by the United Nations through MINURSO, the United Nations national mission stationed in Western Sahara since 1991. Bilateral trade between the new allies has skyrocketed, with a 32% surge in 2022 in favor of Israel, which sent more than 200,000 tourists to Morocco. More than 700,000 Israelis, about 8% of the population, are Jews of Moroccan descent.
With the rapprochement, Moroccan society has also changed. A few years ago there were thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters on the streets of Moroccan cities. Currently, only a few dozen usually gather in front of the parliament building in Rabat to protest Israeli military incursions into Palestinian territories. And according to a survey by the Arab Barometer, 31% of the population are in favor of normalizing relations. However, football has shown that Moroccan-Palestinian relations remain emotional. At the World Cup in Qatar, where Morocco reached the semi-finals last December, the Atlas Lions proudly displayed the Palestinian flag in official photos after each victory, drawing unanimous applause from fans across the Islamic world.
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