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On December 10, 2020, Morocco and Israel signed the Abraham Accords, a normalization pact that was made in hopes of “revived economic and cultural relations.” The very concept of this strategic agreement was created by the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, a US-founded non-profit, whose self-described goal is to ease tensions between Israel and the Arab world and push back against propaganda against Arab-Israeli engagement.
The agreement has been signed by many other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Jordan, and Kosovo. Morocco is the second African country to sign an agreement with the State of Israel, the first being Egypt’s entry into the Camp David Accords in 1978.
While there have been contrasting opinions among Moroccans regarding the normalization agreement, the Abraham Accords Peace Institute’s Annual Report (pg. 57-67) states that this pact has provided an opportunity for Morocco and Israel to undertake many global, environmental, educational, and social initiatives.
Foreign Affairs
According to the report, Rabat’s push for security and “sovereignty over Western Sahara would also likely lead to Morocco playing a more active role in convincing additional African countries to join the Accords.”
Israel’s support and awareness of Morocco’s intentions led to an increase in Israeli government officials setting up meetings and visits in Morocco. Senior Moroccan officials have equally traveled to Israel, with Foreign Minister of Morocco Nasser Bourita being the very first Moroccan minister to formally visit Israel for the Negev Summit in March 2022.
On the security front, the Accords’ aim is to have Morocco agree to take part in a joint counter-terrorism establishment with the Israeli military to aid in “countering crime and terrorism, information sharing, and extradition of Israeli criminals.”
This increase in military support has aided in international cooperations. In terms of foreign trade, Israel and Morocco signed in 2021 a trade agreement to both reinforce foreign investment and trade. Furthermore, the report asserts that Morocco is in an ideal location in between both Europe and Asia, and it has a “free trade agreement with the UAE [United Arab Emirates].” 
(Courtesy of Abraham Accords Peace Institute’s Annual Report)
The Peace Institute’s report also provided information on extensive environmental and technological advancements, including but not limited to artificial intelligence, energy, agriculture, and new desert technologies.
This has resulted in an increase in new agreements between Morocco and Israel: the expansion of Israel’s “smart farming” company into Morocco and the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) working with the International University of Rabat to discover and experiment with new scientific technologies.
Investment and Travel Expansion
Moroccan-Israeli business investment collaborations have spread to other sects of citizens’ life. The report reviews Morocco and Israel’s co-developed investment programs that have worked on “the construction of several hospitals in Morocco.”
It includes statistics showing a surge of Morocco-Israeli conferences centered around the discussion of foreign investment practices within organizations including the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the Jerusalem Post, the Global Media Holdings in Morocco. And through all this, the report concludes: “The Abraham Accords have created the opportunity for transformative cooperation among Accords member countries in the fields of innovation, technology, and start-up entrepreneurship.”
Furthermore, the spread of businesses has increased both commercial and professional travel. In addition to the rise of the amount of governmental officials meeting in person, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics says that in 2022, 2,500 Moroccans visited Israel while over 70,000 Israelis visited Morocco.
The Annual Report presents an interesting parallel in this trend. Morocco’s tourism rates — the outbound travel from Israel —has greatly increased to around 200,000 Israeli tourists since 2019. The report suggests that this may have to do with Morocco being “predominantly a leisure destination, providing affordable luxury to tourists.”
As the outbound travel from Israel into Morocco grows, the more “regularly-scheduled direct flights between Israel and Morocco” are provided and the easier it is for tourists to obtain visas to visit Morocco.
According to the report, however, the same cannot be said about Moroccans traveling into Israel. It states that the amount of inbound tourist travel to Israel from Morocco has dropped below 3,000 — making it difficult and expensive for Morccans to obtain visas to enter into Israel.
(Courtesy of Abraham Accords Peace Institute’s Annual Report)
Also explored in this report is how these global and scientific projects have found their way into universities and student experiences. The University of Rabat signed an agreement with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel to “cement collaboration in scientific research and student exchange,” with the goal to ultimately help foster global connections within Moroccan and Israeli students who dedicated their studies to data science and health care.
Jewish, Muslim & Arab Life
Lastly, the report suggests that the normalization agreement has also improved certain social connections. Morocco’s growing Jewish population “once possessed the largest Jewish community in the Arab world with cities,” it says, adding that even more Moroccan Jews are in the state of Israel today as they amount to over one million citizens in the country. The report then shortly analyzes the results of this population increase. In November of last year, Morocco’s UM6P became the first-ever university in the Arab world to establish a synagogue on campus.
Meanwhile, shortly after Morocco agreed to the Abraham Accords, Israeli President Isaac Herzog sent King Mohammed VI a letter of “gratitude and appreciation,” the report noted. The Israeli president thanked Morocco for providing a “safe haven for Moroccan Jews during the Holocaust.”
Moreover, the report’s findings discuss how Jewish culture and values have found their way into Morocco through a noted increase in imported kosher food and the promotion of Muslim-Jewish Andalusian music through a variety of music festivals in 2022. There were even developments in the sports industry, with an Israeli basketball player becoming the first Israeli to play for an Arab team – Morocco’s professional basketball team.
Given all these positive developments in a wide range of sectors, the Abraham Accords Peace Institute concludes that the increasing coexistence and collaboration between Moroccans and Israelis in various fields has greatly improved trust between the two countries.
