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The Women’s World Forum for Peace opened in Essaouira this September, but Palestinian and Moroccan boycott movements denounced it as a stage for the normalization of ties with Israel amid its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and its Moroccan counterpart (MACBI) released a joint statement that rejects the event as a distraction from the reality on the ground.
The moral disqualification of the West
Speeches about “peace” lose meaning when they fail to address Israel’s genocide against the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza and massacred on a daily basis.
International law has alarmingly proved to be a parchment of empty promises, shredded at will by powers too craven to act against Israel’s genocidal campaign.
The campaigns accused the forum of presenting a shallow vision of coexistence. They argued that it erases the colonial context, the daily violence of apartheid, and the devastating war crimes committed by the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF).
“Western institutions are returning with their outdated supremacists and colonialist discourse, which theorizes ‘dialogue,’ only to exonerate the killers,” the statement read.
By inviting participants to celebrate dialogue, they said, the organizers silence the very voices that endure daily bombardment, displacement, and famine.
The statement drew attention to the suffering of Palestinian women in Gaza, who account for the majority of the victims. Women who survive airstrikes face hunger, forced displacement, and the collapse of entire communities.
If global forums seek to address women’s rights, then the voices and realities of Gazan women cannot be set aside.
At least 18,500 children have already been killed, and the relentless destruction of schools, hospitals, and cultural heritage leaves no space at all for life to continue.
Against whitewashing Israel’s crimes
For PACBI and MACBI, these realities make the Essaouira forum caricatural. “How can one speak of women and peace while ignoring mothers who bury their children under rubble, while ignoring families who starve under siege?” the campaigns asked (rhetorically).
They urged participants to withdraw from the gathering, arguing that participation in such events risks serving as cover for Israel’s bloody genocide rather than confronting it.
The call reflects a wider sentiment across Palestinian and Moroccan civil society. Many see such forums as efforts to launder Israel’s image internationally, while Gaza endures apocalyptical annihilation of life and land.
Morocco has consistently witnessed a wide range of demonstrations expressing solidarity with the people of Gaza.
In major cities across the country, citizens routinely take to the streets to denounce the genocide and call for justice, waving Palestinian flags and holding banners that demand an end to this humanitarian catastrophe.
