Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid arrived in Morocco on Wednesday (August 11th) in what is his first official visit to the country since the two states agreed to renew diplomatic ties last December.
The head of Israeli diplomacy is expected to meet his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, during the day and to open a diplomatic representation in Rabat on Thursday before leaving.
"We landed in Morocco. Proud to represent Israel during this historic visit," he wrote on Twitter as the Israeli national carrier El Al's plane landed.
شكراً على حفاوة الترحيب.
תודה על קבלת הפנים החמה. @ Mohcine_jazouli pic.twitter.com/FSIzpWUJt9
- יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid🟠 (@yairlapid) August 11, 2021
The kingdom was the fourth Arab country, after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, to have normalized its relations with Israel in 2020 under the impetus of the United States of Donald Trump, in return for an American recognition of its "sovereignty" over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
The Israeli delegation is expected at the royal mausoleum where Kings Hassan II and Mohammed V are buried, before the bilateral meeting between Yaïr Lapid and Nasser Bourita.
Morocco's Jewish community is the largest in North Africa (around 3,000 people), and some 700,000 Israelis of Moroccan descent have often maintained very strong ties with their country of origin.
Cooperation agreements
Three cooperation agreements should be signed on Wednesday during Yaïr Lapid's visit, the Moroccan foreign ministry said, without giving further details.
Israeli officials will visit the Beth-El synagogue in Casablanca on Thursday after the inauguration of the Israel liaison office in Rabat.
This first official visit comes a little over two weeks after the launch of direct commercial airlines between the two countries.
Since then, the first Israeli tourists have flocked to the country's tourist capital, Marrakech, and the megalopolis of Casablanca.
Before the pandemic, 50,000 to 70,000 Israeli tourists, mostly of Moroccan origin, visited the kingdom each year but had to transit through other countries.
A first direct flight of a plane carrying Israeli officials was operated in December 2020 between Tel Aviv and Rabat and bilateral agreements were signed in the wake, including in particular economic cooperation.
In July, Morocco and Israel also signed a cyber defense cooperation agreement in Rabat, covering "operational cooperation, research, development and information sharing," the Israeli national leadership said on Facebook. cybersecurity.
Recently, the kingdom was accused of using spyware Pegasus, designed by Israeli company NSO, according to an investigation by an international media consortium.
Rabat categorically denied "these false and unfounded allegations" and initiated legal proceedings.
Tensions around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Palestinians denounced the normalization agreements between Israel and Arab countries, described as "treason", the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict having been until then considered as a sine qua non for any normalization.
In the wake of the announcement of normalization with the Hebrew state, the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, assured the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, the continuation of "Morocco's permanent and sustained commitment to the Palestinian cause. correct".
The Palestinian cause continues to mobilize civil society, some extreme left parties and Islamists, who remain opposed to any normalization of relations with the Hebrew state.
The visit is "considered an insult to Moroccans and a betrayal of Palestine and its people," criticized the Palestine Action Group in Morocco in a statement released on Monday.
The two countries maintained official relations from 1993 to 2000, when the second intifada broke out in the Palestinian territories against the Israeli occupation.
Present since Antiquity, the Jewish community of Morocco was strengthened in the 15th century by the expulsion of 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.
With AFP and Reuters
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