Morocco-Israel normalization deal draws widespread condemnation online

Political activists in Morocco and other Arab countries have launched an online campaign against a US-brokered normalization deal between the Moroccan government and the occupying regime of Israel.

Donald Trump, the outgoing president of the United States, announced on Thursday that Morocco had reached an agreement with Israel on the normalization of relations, becoming the fourth Arab country – after the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Sudan – to reach such a deal with the Tel Aviv regime since August.

Morocco’s royal court confirmed the news and said that the US will open a consulate in the Western Sahara territory in line with the agreement.

Trump used Morocco's Western Sahara claim as a bargaining chip in talks with Morocco to secure the deal and agreed to recognize Rabat's sovereignty over the territory.

Morocco annexed the vast Western Sahara region, a former Spanish colony, in 1975 and has since been in conflict with the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a movement that seeks to establish an independent state in the territory and end Morocco’s presence there.

Morocco is currently in control of 80 percent of the region, including its phosphate deposits and fishing waters.

The Polisario denounced Washington’s recognition of Rabat's claim, saying it was a violation of international law and added that its struggle for autonomy "will continue.”

“The stance… is a blatant violation of the United Nations charter and the resolutions of international legitimacy,” the group said.

Reacting to the US-brokered deal, Moroccan and Arab activists took to Twitter on Friday to reject the agreement and to reiterate their support for the Palestinian people.

Using the hashtag “Moroccans Against Normalization”, the activists censured the deal as a loss for Sahrawis — the inhabitants of Western Sahara — and Palestinians alike.

Palestinian resistance movements also vented their outrage over the US-brokered deal, with Hazem Qassem, spokesman for the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, saying, “This is a sin and it doesn’t serve the Palestinian people. The Israeli occupation uses every new normalization to increase its aggression against the Palestinian people and increase its settlement expansion.” 

Hanan Ashrawi, an outgoing member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), censured the deal as “sinister and ugly" and underlined in a tweet that the agreement was meant to "extract concessions and benefits for Israel" before Trump leaves office.

Islamic Jihad Movement of Palestine also condemned the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel, describing it as a betrayal of al-Quds.

The normalization deals between some Arab states and the Tel Aviv regime have already been condemned by all Palestinian factions as a betrayal of their cause.

MG