Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Morocco condemns Islamist party’s comments on Israel

“The kingdom’s relations cannot be the subject of blackmail by anyone,” the royal court said.

Then-Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat (left) and senior adviser to the U.S. president Jared Kushner (second from left) with Moroccan King Mohammed VI (right) at the royal palace in Rabat, Dec. 22, 2020. Credit: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO.
Then-Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat (left) and senior adviser to the U.S. president Jared Kushner (second from left) with Moroccan King Mohammed VI (right) at the royal palace in Rabat, Dec. 22, 2020. Credit: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO.

Morocco’s royal court on Monday condemned comments by a leading Islamist opposition party that accused the authorities of defending Israel.

“The general secretariat of the PJD [the Justice and Development Party] recently published a declaration containing irresponsible excesses and dangerous approximations regarding relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the State of Israel,” the royal court said in a statement, AFP reported.

“Morocco’s position towards the Palestinian question is irreversible,” the royal court continued.

“The kingdom’s international relations cannot be the subject of blackmail by anyone or for any consideration whatsoever, particularly in the current complex global context. The instrumentalization of the kingdom’s foreign policy in a domestic partisan agenda thus constitutes a dangerous, unacceptable precedent,” it added.

The PJD, an Islamist party led by former Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, issued a statement last week in which it “deplored...recent positions taken by the foreign minister [Nasser Bourita] in which he appeared to defend the Zionist entity [Israel] in African and European meetings.”

It claimed this came as Israeli forces were committing “criminal aggression against our Palestinian brothers.”

Morocco normalized relations with Israel in December 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, a series of U.S.-brokered deals between Muslim countries and the Jewish state.

Those agreements broke with decades of Arab consensus that formal ties should only be established with Israel in the event of a peace agreement that gives the Palestinians their own state.

The Vermont senator noted that Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, but still said the Jewish state was committing war crimes like Russia and Sudan.
“The Jedwabne Pogrom is a warning of what can happen when we allow antisemitism and hate to go unchallenged,” Agnieszka Markiewicz of the American Jewish Committee said.
The sanctions target a global financial network that enriches Iran’s ruling elite and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps while restricting Tehran’s access to foreign currency, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
A Democratic consultant told JNS that those supporting Platner “were more interested in overthrowing the Democratic establishment than they were in actually winning races against Republicans.”
The Democratic contenders for U.S. Senate in Michigan remain statistically tied in a new poll, as foreign policy and Israel emerge as flashpoints in the campaign.
Videos appear to show crowds in The Hague chanting slogans, including “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas,” after France advanced with a 2-0 victory.