Rabat — Secretary General of Morocco’s Justice and Development Party (PJD), Abdelilah Benkirane, fiercely denounced a demand by a human rights association urging Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit to prohibit the party’s national congress over its invitation to members of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, calling the request “a great display of shamelessness.”
During his opening address at the regular meeting of the PJD’s General Secretariat, Benkirane declared that hosting Hamas at the congress would be “a great honor,” reaffirming the widespread Moroccan backing for the Palestinian resistance.
He went further, asserting that those demanding Hamas’s exclusion should themselves be subject to investigation, particularly in light of King Mohammed VI’s position equating the Palestinian cause with Morocco’s own national cause, emphasizing that Moroccans hold Palestine with the same regard reserved for Morocco’s territorial integrity.
He went on to salute the perseverance and sacrifices of the Palestinian resistance — including the martyrdom of its leaders, fighters, and countless civilians under Israeli bombardments in Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and beyond. He stressed that the Palestinian cause remains a defining issue for the Arab and Islamic world, transcending geography.
Speaking on the dire catastrophe in Gaza, Benkirane said, “What is happening breaks our hearts. We are astonished by the sheer capacity of this criminal, Netanyahu, to kill daily, to starve an entire population, to deprive them of food and medicine, and to target journalists.”
He described the broader state of the Islamic Ummah as one of deep humiliation, lamenting it as a tragic and disgraceful reality where “we have reached levels of absurdity never thought possible.”
Benkirane also condemned reports of Israeli ships allegedly docking in Moroccan ports for resupply, decrying such actions as religiously impermissible and morally indefensible.
“It is, of course, also unacceptable for any country — including our own — to allow ships to come and refuel when they’re carrying weapons meant to destroy our brothers,” he said, condemning both the policy and the complicity that enables it. “There are limits,” he warned.
In closing, he addressed King Mohammed VI directly, invoking his role as Chair of the Al-Quds Committee and Commander of the Faithful. Benkirane called on the King to intervene and take a firm stance to stop the ongoing massacres and atrocities that, he insisted, “none of us can accept.”
The PJD’s 9th National Congress is scheduled for April 26–27. Notably, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch is not expected to attend.
Hamas, established in 1987 during the First Intifada, arose in response to Israeli force aggression. Its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, was founded in 1992 to conduct armed resistance against Israeli occupation.
The group’s 2017 charter reaffirms that its struggle is against the Israeli state and the Zionist movement — not Jews as a people — countering frequent accusations used to deflect attention from the systematic oppression, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing faced by Palestinians at the hands of the entity.
