PALESTINIAN GROUPS CONDEMNED AS ISRAELIS WELCOME MOROCCO DEAL

Fri 11 December 2020:

Along with Egypt and Jordan, Morocco becomes the sixth Arab League member to normalise ties with Israel.

As part of the deal, the US has agreed to recognise Morocco’s claim over the disputed Western Sahara region.

It is the subject of a dispute between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which has been seeking to establish an independent state.

Morocco is the fourth state to make such a deal with Israel since August.

Palestinian groups in Gaza including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Thursday condemned the announcement of Morocco’s plans to normalize ties with Israel.

“This is a political sin that does not serve the Palestinian cause but encourages the [Israeli] occupation to continue its negligence of the rights of our people,” Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement.

He added that such normalization deals would increase Israel’s aggressive policy against the Palestinian people as well as increase settlement activity on Palestinian occupied lands.

Earlier Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Morocco “have agreed to full diplomatic relations,” calling the deal a “massive breakthrough” for peace in the Middle East.

Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2020

Morocco became the fourth nation to normalize ties with Tel Aviv after Sudan declared official normalization of relations with Israel and a halt to any aggression with the Jewish state in October.

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates agreed in September to establish full diplomatic, cultural and commercial relations with Israel after signing controversial agreements at the White House.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the US-brokered normalization deal with Morocco, describing it as “another great light of peace” and praised Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s decision as “historic.”

Netanyahu said it would lead to direct flights between Morocco and Israel and that the fourth US-brokered deal between Israel and an Arab country in recent months would be a “very warm peace.”

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Islamic Jihad’s spokesperson Dawood Shehab considered the Moroccan move a “betrayal to Jerusalem and Palestine,” adding it is “another setback to the Arab regime.”

He, however, said the Moroccan people will reject the normalization.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a statement that the announcement of the Moroccan-Israeli normalization deal is “a black day in the history of our people and our Arab nation.”

The statement also stressed that still the Arab peoples reject all forms of normalization with Israel and will continue to resist the Israeli occupation.

Morocco was the Muslim country from which the greatest number of Jews emigrated to Israel after the 1948 creation of the state. A small Jewish community remains in the North African country.

The news broke in Israel as Jews marked the first night of the Hanukkah festival of lights, commemorating the 2nd century BC victory of Judah Maccabee and his followers in a revolt in Judea against armies of the Seleucid Empire and the ensuing restoration of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

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