Morocco Jews 'Already Packing' for Direct Israel Flights

The flags of Morocco, Israel, and the United States flutter from the cockpit of an El Al airplane that landed in Morocco's capital Rabat for the first Israel-Morocco direct commercial flight on December 22, 2020 - AFP
The flags of Morocco, Israel, and the United States flutter from the cockpit of an El Al airplane that landed in Morocco's capital Rabat for the first Israel-Morocco direct commercial flight on December 22, 2020 - AFP
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Morocco Jews 'Already Packing' for Direct Israel Flights

The flags of Morocco, Israel, and the United States flutter from the cockpit of an El Al airplane that landed in Morocco's capital Rabat for the first Israel-Morocco direct commercial flight on December 22, 2020 - AFP
The flags of Morocco, Israel, and the United States flutter from the cockpit of an El Al airplane that landed in Morocco's capital Rabat for the first Israel-Morocco direct commercial flight on December 22, 2020 - AFP

Fanny Mergui has no doubt: Moroccan Jews "are already packing their suitcases" to board direct flights to Israel after the kingdom normalized ties with the Jewish state.

Morocco, home to North Africa's biggest Jewish community and the ancestral homeland of some 700,000 Israelis, is also hoping for an influx of Israeli tourists when the Covid-19 pandemic eases.

"I'm very happy" that the five-hour route will be served by direct flights, said Mergui, a Moroccan Jew who lives in Casablanca.

"It's a true revolution."

The first direct commercial flight headed from Tel Aviv to Rabat in December to mark the three-way, US-brokered accord, under which Washington also recognized Moroccan sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara, AFP reported.

But tickets for regular commercial flights have yet to go on sale.

Bureaucratic delays have been compounded by the pandemic, which forced Morocco to mostly close its borders since March and impose a nationwide curfew in December.

Singer Suzanne Harroch, who had to wait 14 hours in transit at a Paris airport last time she visited Israel, called the Israeli-Moroccan rapprochement a "miracle".

"A lot of my family live there," said the 67-year-old. "I can't wait to see them more, and more often."

Israel had established liaison offices in Morocco in the 1990s during a short-lived diplomatic opening.

But they were closed again in the early 2000s as the second Palestinian intifada sparked a crushing Israeli response.

Yet relations quietly continued, with some $149 million in bilateral trade between 2014-2017, according to Moroccan news reports.

The re-opening of the liaison offices could make it much easier for Moroccans to obtain visas to visit Israel.

Morocco is also hoping to host more Israeli visitors.

Official statistics show that prior to the coronavirus pandemic, up to 70,000 Israeli tourists used to visit the country annually.

Most were of Moroccan ancestry and had kept close ties with their country of origin.

"The majority of Israelis of Moroccan origin are delighted," said Avraham Avizemer, who left Casablanca as a toddler and has lived for decades in Israel.

The fact their children and grandchildren can return "is huge", he said.

One Israeli already in Morocco is Elan.

Today, about 3,000 Jews remain in Morocco.

Businessman George Sebat, 56, said he was "very happy and very optimistic" about Morocco's normalization, citing positive impacts for tourism and the economy.

Prosper Bensimon, speaking after the evening prayer at Casablanca's Em Habanim synagogue, agreed.

"Four of my Muslim neighbors want to accompany me on my first visit from Morocco," he said.

But normalization has not been universally welcomed by Moroccans.

Sion Assidon, an academic and prominent left-wing activist who backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel's treatment of Palestinians, is bitterly opposed.

Mergui, a former Zionist youth activist, said she had emigrated to Israel in the 1960s but returned to Morocco after the 1967 Six-Day War.

"I could not accept that the Jewish state, which I believed in, should occupy Palestinian land," she said.

She urged Israel to support "the creation of a Palestinian state".

But, she added, she welcomes "every step towards peace".



Arab League Urges UN Security Council to Stop Israeli Assault against Palestinian People

A man prepares meals to be distributed to displaced Palestinians in front of a leveled building in Gaza City on November 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A man prepares meals to be distributed to displaced Palestinians in front of a leveled building in Gaza City on November 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Arab League Urges UN Security Council to Stop Israeli Assault against Palestinian People

A man prepares meals to be distributed to displaced Palestinians in front of a leveled building in Gaza City on November 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A man prepares meals to be distributed to displaced Palestinians in front of a leveled building in Gaza City on November 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The Arab League urged on Saturday the UN Security Council and the international community to assume their responsibilities and exert pressure on Israel to stop its assaut against the Palestinian people and to ensure that it provides all humanitarian assistance needed by the people in Gaza Strip.

In a statement marking the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the Arab League urged Britain and all the other countries that did not recognize the Palestinian state to take this step in support of peace in line with the two-state solution.

It emphasized that the only way to achieve just, comprehensive and lasting peace is to end the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967, and to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital according to international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.

"The Balfour Declaration continues to be a profound wound in the human conscience due to the Nakba that the Palestinian people have experienced and the ongoing deprivation of their legitimate and inalienable rights to freedom and independence. This refers to the Israeli occupation's violations and practices, settlement and Judaization, annexation and siege, the destruction of the Palestinian people's livelihoods, and the desecration of their religious shrines," the Arab League statement said.

It stressed that Israel's continued crimes and violations are a reflection of the international community's inability to fulfil its obligations and assume its responsibilities in resisting aggression and occupation, protecting the Palestinian people.

It must ask Israel to comply with the principles of international law and relevant resolutions in a manner that ends the occupation and allows the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination in an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Arab League stressed that Israel continues to insist on expanding the area of its hostilities to include Lebanon and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights despite the imminent danger of a regional war.

Moreover, the Israeli Knesset's decision to ban UNRWA's work in the occupied Palestinian territories is an additional flagrant violation of the UN Charter, of the international will, and of all human values.

The aim of this step is to destroy generations of Palestinians for whom the UN agency represents a lifeline in catastrophic humanitarian conditions. It is imperative that Israel stop these crimes and protect the agency's work in accordance with its UN mandate.