Nationwide Protests Rock Morocco, Slam The Military MoU Signed With Israel

ALBAWABA - Nationwide protests have taken Morocco by storm in the last few days. Protests in 36 towns and cities have continued against the military and security cooperation accord that was signed between Morocco and Israel last week.

The protests are being organized by the Moroccan Front For Supporting Palestine and Against Normalization. According to social media reports hundreds of people in the different cities of the country took part in the protests that condemned the cooperation agreement. Protesters say they don't want anything to do with Israel.

The protests are being held at a time when the United Nations declared the 29 November as the International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinian People.  Slogans of support for the Palestinian people have been expressed all over Morocco with shouts against the "Zionist enemy".

Videos of the protests were recorded on the social media with much comments and images showing protesters confronting security forces and riot police that included Tangier, Oujda and Berykane, Ben Slimane, Beni-Mellal and Oulad Teima.  Pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Moroccan capital Rabat and against Morocco's renewal of ties with Israel was registered as well although the authorities first tried to ban it.

The nationwide protests were against the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz and with his Moroccan counterpart Abdellatif Loudiyi that was signed last week. Gantz was on a two-day visit to Rabat, and he came especially to sign the MoU which is the first of its kind between Israel and an Arab country and increases military and defence cooperation between Israel and Morocco.

The Moroccan Front plainly rejects the military cooperation agreement and stated it makes  Morocco a vehicle "for the Zionist entity to achieve its expansionist projects in the Great Maghreb” whilst condemning the Gantz visit to Rabat.