ByNews Desk- The Cradle
Moroccan officials reportedly gave a "shopping list" of weapons to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz earlier this week during his visit to Rabat
The Moroccan Front in Support of Palestine and Against Normalization, the group in charge of organizing the protests, has urged people across the country to come out in numbers and demonstrate against the “creeping normalization with Israel.”
The group stressed that the government’s decision to strengthen ties with Israel is great betrayal of the blood of the martyrs and children of the Palestinian people and an insult to Morocco and its history, which has always supported the liberation of Palestine.
According to media reports, the memorandum of understanding Gantz signed with his Moroccan counterpart Abdellatif Loudiyi will deepen military cooperation between Rabat and Tel Aviv, as the two sides will among other things start sharing military intelligence.
According to Hebrew media, Moroccan officials provided Gantz with a “shopping list” of Israeli weapon systems that Rabat wishes to purchase. The list reportedly includes drones made by Israel Aerospace Industries, radars by Elta Systems, the Sky Lock counter-drone system as well as the Barak-8 long-rang air-defense system that is available in naval and land-based configurations.
The deal came less than a year since the normalization of relations between the two countries.
On 10 December 2020, Morocco became the fourth Arab nation to normalize relations with Israel as part of the so called Abraham Accords. However, many Moroccans remain staunchly opposed to Israel and view the normalization deal as abandonment of the Palestinians in their fight against the Israeli occupation.
In return for reviving diplomatic ties with Israel, the US government granted recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory.
Meanwhile, on 26 November, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned the defense agreement. According Palestine’s Wafa news agency, the PLO said, ”We hoped that the Kingdom of Morocco, which chairs the Al-Quds Committee, would not take this dangerous step in light of the racist measures practiced by Israel against the Palestinian people, its disregard of all peace agreements, its rejection of negotiations and the two-state solution, and its imposition of a fait accompli policy”.
The PLO has urged Morocco to cancel the agreement. It said that any normalization deal that comes before ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands is unacceptable.
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