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Rabat – Abdelilah Benkirane, the Secretary General of the Justice and Development Party (PJD), has lamented the inadequacy of support extended to Palestinians amid Israel’s devastating war targeting civilians.
In a video address on Wednesday, Benkirane urged Morocco to take a much bolder stance in support of Palestine by canceling the highly anticipated Mawazine festival, which is scheduled for next month and expected to feature A-list celebrities, including Nicki Minaj and Calvin Harris.
To him, the festival should be canceled in a move of solidarity for Palestinians facing day-to-day massacres carried out by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) since October 7.
He drew a parallel between the ways in which the West and the Arab world have shown solidarity with the Palestinians, arguing that canceling the Mawazine in protest of Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza would give more credibility to Morocco’s repeated expressions of support for the Palestinian cause.
It is troubling and disturbing that university campuses across the West have seen vigorous protests in support of Palestine in recent weeks, while campuses in Morocco and the Arab world have been silent and peaceful, Benkirane said.
“This situation is not honorable for us as an Arab and Islamic nation,” said Benkirane, underlining his extreme distress at the massacres committed against Palestinians in Gaza.
In a statement on its website, the PJD quoted its leader as saying that the international public opinion “tends to hold Israel severely accountable, and there is an international change in this regard, including three European countries deciding to recognize the Palestinian state, stressing that this is a very good and significant shift.”
According to the statement, the PJD chief described protesters in the West as civilized and called their continued show of solidarity to Gaza a “dignified movement for humanity” that has largely shifted the global conversation about Palestine to the dismay of Israeli propaganda.
Over the past months, Benkirane and his party have repeatedly issued press releases to express concerns about the situation in Gaza and urge Morocco to reconsider its normalization of relations with Israel.
In November last year, the party called on Morocco to sever all ties with Israel by closing the Israeli liaison office in Rabat and expelling all Israeli representatives from Moroccan territory.
