The visit of the Chief of Israeli Diplomacy to Morocco after normalization

The visit comes eight months later Normalizing relationships Between Israel and Morocco. Yer Lapid, the head of Israeli diplomacy, arrived in Morocco on Wednesday, August 11, for the first visit by a senior official of the Hebrew government. Mr Lapidte is expected to meet with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Purita during the day before opening a diplomatic delegation in Rabat on Thursday.

“We landed in Morocco. I am proud to represent Israel during this historic visit.”He wrote on Twitter about the landing of the Israeli national company El Al aircraft. Morocco’s Jewish community is the largest in North Africa (about 3,000 people) and about 700,000 Israelis of Moroccan descent often had very strong ties to their country.

It is the fourth largest Arab country after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan. To normalize its relationship with Israel by 2020, Under the administration of Donald Trump. Standardization in exchange for US recognition “Sovereignty” In the disputed territory of the Western Sahara.

Travel facilities between the two countries

Ahead of the bilateral meeting between MM, an Israeli delegation is expected at the royal tomb where King Hassan II and Mohammed V are buried. Lapid and Borita. The three cooperation agreements are expected to be signed on Wednesday, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said in a statement without further details.

Israeli officials to visit Bethlehem synagogue in Casablanca on Thursday Israel Liaison Office in Rabat. The first official visit comes two weeks after the launch of direct commercial flights between the two countries.

Since then, the first Israeli tourists have flocked to the country’s tourist capital, Marrakesh, and the metropolis of Casablanca. Before the epidemic, 50,000 to 70,000 Israeli tourists, mostly of Moroccan descent, visited the kingdom each year, but had to travel through other countries.

The first direct flight of the aircraft carrying Israeli officials was operated between Tel Aviv and Rabat in December 2020 and bilateral agreements were signed, including specific economic cooperation.

In July, Morocco and Israel signed an Internet Security Cooperation Agreement in Rabat “Functional collaboration, research, development and information sharing”, The Israeli National Directorate of Cyber ​​Security said on Facebook.

Recently the kingdom was accused of being Application of Pegasus spy software, Designed by the Israeli company NSO, according to a survey by an international media association. Rabat flatly refused his invitation“False and unsubstantiated allegations” And legal proceedings were initiated.

A “betrayal” according to the Palestinians

The Palestinians condemned the normalization agreements between Israel and the Arab states “Treachery”, It was assumed that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would not apply to any normalization until then.

Following the declaration of normalcy with Israel, the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, confirmed the continuation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “Permanent and lasting commitment to Morocco’s Palestinian cause”.

The Palestinian cause continues to mobilize civil society, some far-left parties and Islamists who oppose the normalization of relations with the Hebrew state. Visit this “Considered an insult to Morocco and a betrayal of Palestine and its people.”He criticized the National Action Committee for Palestine in Morocco in a statement issued on Monday.

The two countries maintained official relations from 1993 to 2000, when a second Indipada erupted in the Palestinian territories against the Israeli occupation. From ancient times the Jewish community of Morocco was strengthened in XV^e Century by the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. It reached about 250,000 souls in the late 1940s, or about 10% of the population. Many left after the creation of Israel in 1948.