Moroccan politicians slam former Hamas leader’s statements

RABAT - Former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal’s call for Moroccans to pressure King Mohammed VI to end his country's normalisation deal with Israel over the war in Gaza sparked outrage among Moroccans on social media.

Meshaal was among a group of virtual guest speakers invited by the Islamist Unification and Reform movement (MUR) on Sunday in Rabat.

Meshaal urged Moroccans to protest and demand the Israeli liaison office in Rabat be closed and that normalisation with Israel revoked.

“I call on my Moroccan brothers to address the country’s leadership, out of love for Morocco, out of concerns for its interests and security, out of love of Palestine, in the current circumstances… to tell them to cut off ties, stop normalisation and expel and the ambassador, to turn this page for a respectable nation like Morocco,” Meshaal told the virtual participants.

“Such move will convince the West and the US to revise their position,” he added.

Former Moroccan tourism minister Lahcen Haddad slammed Meshaal on the social platform X.

“A fighter of luxury and opulence, from his ivory tower in Doha, tries to give lessons to Moroccans in resistance . Who is primarily involved in the case? Are you Khaled, or Moroccans? Why are you not in the field facing the Israeli killing machine against the defenceless Palestinians?” asked Haddad.

“Instead of giving lessons, from your luxurious, wealthy, and comfortable position, to the honourable Moroccans who have stood up as supporters of every Arab cause in Algeria, Golan, Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, Libya and Yemen and others,” he wrote on X.

“Set the example, put on resistance clothing, sheath your rifle, and go down to the battlefield. As for the “Five Star Struggle,” we are tired of it and have lived it with the merchants of the cause and those who have benefited from it and from the blood of martyrs, innocents, and children for a long time. If you are not ashamed, say whatever you want,” he concluded.

Hamas leaders have maintained good ties with the Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD) party which was leading the government that signed the US-brokered normalisation deal with Israel in 2020.

Thousands of Moroccans have taken to the streets across major cities to denounce Israel’s relentless war on Gaza since the war erupted on October 7 and call on the government to cut its ties with the Jewish state.

The hashtag #المغاربة_لايخاطبهم_الا_ملكهم (Only the King addresses Moroccans) went viral on social media as Moroccans insisted that King Mohammed VI is the only leader who can address them and lashed out at the Palestinian militant group.

“Gaza is finished because of Hamas,” wrote Mehdi Baladi on X.

The opposition Popular Movement (MP) party said in a statement that Meshaal’s declarations blatantly distorted Morocco’s position as a nation and its people supporting the Palestinian people in their legitimate right to establish their independent with full sovereignty and East Jerusalem as its capital in accordance with the two-state solution.

The MP said it “considers Meshaal’s statements towards our country as an “attack, in addition to his total absence of the slightest decency and respect for for diplomatic standards.”

Palestinian ambassador to Guinea and Sierra Leone Thaer Abubaker said on X that he understood Moroccan’s reaction towards Meshaal.

“To the brothers and activists from Morocco, I very much understand your reaction to the statements of the struggling brother Khaled Meshaal. This is normal. Morocco is a special society distinguished by the specificity of the pledge of allegiance that the Moroccan ancestors chose without coercion and was not imposed on them,” said Abubaker.

“Yes, there is some discrepancy in opinions, but at the same time, the support of free Moroccans for humanitarian issues in all parts of the world, especially Palestine is an unconditional support, which Moroccans have inherited from father to son since the Arab-Moroccan leader Yaqoub al-Mansur,” he added.