On February 18th, a Moroccan court rejected an urgent legal request to ban Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev from entering the country. This ruling led to protests outside the Moroccan parliament, denouncing the government’s “betrayal” of their historic support for Palestine.
According to The New Arab, the lawsuit, which was filed by a group of Moroccan lawyers, aimed to prevent Regev from participating in the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Marrakech, due to her alleged involvement in war crimes against Palestine.
“The court has refused to take responsibility”, said Khaled Soufiani, a lawyer and activist.
Regev is a hardline nationalist as well as a former military spokesperson, who is one of the most controversial figures in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The Israeli minister’s visit, occurring only weeks after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, has sparked outrage in Morocco, as public sentiment is overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, in spite of the government’s decision of 2020 to normalise relations with Israel.
Mohamed El-Ghafri, the Moroccan Front Against Normalisation’s national coordinator, said that the protests would continue in Marrakech when Regev attends the conference. He described her presence as “a disgrace”.
This all comes as Netanyahu has approved Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza, turning it into a waterfront area under US control.
Morocco and Israel normalised relations in 2020 through the highly controversial Abraham Accords, which were brokered by Trump in his first term.
In exchange, the US officially recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over disputed Western Saharan territories.
The New Arab
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