Rabat - The Moroccan government has decided to tighten control around illegal importation of dates from Israel, following a campaign launched by the anti-Israeli movement to denounce the traffic that “affects national interests.”
Rabat – The Moroccan government has decided to tighten control around illegal importation of dates from Israel, following a campaign launched by the anti-Israeli movement to denounce the traffic that “affects national interests.”
The Moroccan government has reacted positively to the pressure from activists who have taken to the streets in many Moroccan cities to distribute pamphlets with the slogan: “Boycott the Zionist dates. Don’t finance the bullets lodged in the Palestinians’ chest.”
With only a few days before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, Israeli dates flood the Moroccan market under “false names and origins.”
In pamphlets distributed by the anti-Israel movement in Morocco, the activists said that “some of these dates are marketed with fake labels such as: ‘origin: South Africa,’ and in other cases, there are no details specifying where the dates were produced besides a bar code that starts with ‘972,’ referring to the Palestinian territories.”
The Islamist figure of the Unification and Reform Movement Dr. Ahmed Rissouni issued a fatwa in June 2015 against trading in Israeli dates. He affirms that these dates “were stolen from their real owners, the Palestinians.” He adds that buying Israeli dates is “an act of support and funding for the survival of Israel.”
Dates are the first thing Moroccans break their fast with during the month of Ramadan, following the tradition of the Prophet Mohamed (pbuh).
“He used to break his fast with fresh dates before going to prayer. When fresh dates were unavailable, he would break his fast with dried dates,” the Prophet’s friend and companion Anas B. Malik narrates.
In Morocco, the first day of the holy month is marked by the sighting of the crescent moon by special committees, usually assigned by the Ministry of Religious Affairs in various regions throughout the kingdom. This year, the holy month will start either on Monday or Tuesday.
