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Rabat – In an unprecedented move, the Moroccan government has included Israel on its list of foreign countries that host the largest Moroccan communities abroad.
A new report released by the Ministry in charge of charge of Moroccans Living Abroad and Migration Affairs revealed that the second largest Moroccan community abroad is in Israel, with over 800,000 Moroccan nationals.
Entitled “Guide of Moroccans Living Abroad”, the report, which was conducted based on 2015 data, noted that France hosts the largest number of Moroccans living abroad, with an estimated 1.3 million Moroccans.
The Moroccan diaspora in Spain, which was ranked second last year, came third with over 758,000 Moroccan nationals. Italy, on the other hand, ranked fourth with an estimated 500,000 Moroccans.
The move hasn’t gone unnoticed in the Moroccan media. Several local newspapers labeled the it an “unprecedented step,” since the Ministry of in charge of Moroccans Living Abroad has never included Israel among the foreign countries that host the Moroccan diaspora in its previous reports.
Meanwhile, Minister in charge of charge of Moroccans Living Abroad and Migration Affairs, Anis Birou, has refused to comment on this move.
The Jewish community that lived in Morocco before 1956 was considered the largest community in the Arab world.
Since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, the Jewish presence in Morocco began to decline, as waves of Moroccan Jews emigrated to Israel.
