Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Morocco

From Powerbase
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Moroccan Jewish community and its emigration, Mossad's ties with Hassan II (Operation Yachin, the 1965 Arab League summit recordings and the Ben Barka affair), the 2020 normalisation and US recognition of Moroccan claims to Western Sahara, the 2021 defence agreement, Israeli arms and drone factories, Pegasus, and protests since the Gaza war


Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Morocco go back to the country's large historic Jewish community. It numbered about 270,000 in 1948, and most of its members later left, many of them for "Israel".[1] Under King Hassan II, Moroccan security services worked secretly with the Mossad long before the two states had any formal ties.[2] In December 2020 Morocco agreed to normalise relations with "Israel", and the United States recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in return.[3] A defence agreement and large arms purchases followed. Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Moroccans have staged repeated mass protests against normalisation.[4]

Jewish community and religious life

History

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says Jews have lived in what is now Morocco for more than 2,000 years. Refugees arrived after the Spanish massacres of 1391 and the expulsion of 1492. Jews gained equality and religious autonomy under the French Protectorate from 1912. During the Second World War King Mohammed V resisted the Vichy regime's anti-Jewish laws. About 270,000 Jews lived in Morocco in 1948, and by 1971 only 25,000 remained. The WJC says it played "a critical diplomatic role" in the 1950s and 1960s in enabling Moroccan Jews to emigrate to France, "Israel" and elsewhere.[1]

The community today

The WJC estimates about 2,100 Jews in 2020, about 1,000 of them in Casablanca, with smaller communities in Rabat, Marrakesh, Meknes, Tangier and Fez.[1] Jewish community leaders told the US State Department there were about 1,500. The constitution recognises the Jewish community as an integral part of society, and Jewish family courts, run by rabbinical judges, govern personal status. The monarchy funds the restoration of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries.[5]

The Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco (Conseil des Communautés Israélites du Maroc), based in Casablanca, coordinates Jewish life and is the WJC's Moroccan affiliate. Its secretary general is Serge Berdugo.[1] André Azoulay, a Jewish banker from Essaouira, has been an adviser to the king since 1991, first to Hassan II and then to Mohammed VI. His official biography says he has contributed to the Middle East peace process and to initiatives for reconciliation between Jews and Muslims.[6] In 2023 he hosted Ftour Pluriel, an interfaith Ramadan event attended by US diplomats.[5]

How far is it Zionist? The WJC, the council's parent body, welcomed the 2020 normalisation, and its news pages report Berdugo calling the expansion of relations "beneficial for both countries".[1] The US government funds the Mimouna Association, a Moroccan NGO, to combat antisemitism, which the State Department describes as including "anti-Zionism, the delegitimization of Israel".[5] The 2020 joint declaration cites the king's "special ties" with the Moroccan Jewish community "living in Morocco and throughout the world including in Israel".[7]

Chabad

The WJC lists a Chabad school among the four Jewish schools still open in Casablanca.[1]

Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Morocco

The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists Rabbi Levi Banon as "Chabad Community Rabbi of Casablanca" and Rabbi Chimon Lahiany in Marrakesh.[8]

Zionist movement and advocacy

The Center for Israel Education says more than 120,000 Jews moved from Morocco to "Israel" between 1948 and 1961, before the organised emigration of the 1960s (see below).[9] No present-day Zionist organisation operating in Morocco was found. The WJC and the Council of Jewish Communities supported normalisation (see above).[1]

Israeli state and commercial ties

Operation Yachin, 1961–64

On 28 November 1961, after an understanding between the Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and King Hassan II, "Israel" launched Operation Yachin to bring Moroccan Jews to "Israel". According to the Center for Israel Education, "Israel" agreed to pay $500,000, plus $100 for each of the first 50,000 emigrants and $250 for each one after that. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) contributed $50 million. More than 97,000 Jews left via France or Italy by 1964, and more than 120,000 had moved to "Israel" before the operation began.[9]

The 1965 Arab League summit recordings

In 2016 the former Israeli military intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit told Yedioth Ahronoth that Hassan II had let the Mossad monitor the Arab League summit in Casablanca in September 1965. A joint Mossad–Shin Bet team led by Peter Zvi Malkin and Rafi Eitan was given a hotel floor, then asked to leave the day before the summit opened. Eitan said the Moroccans afterwards "gave us all of the needed information". Gazit said the recordings showed that the Egyptian armoured corps "was in pitiful shape and not prepared for battle". The Mossad chief, Meir Amit, called the operation "one of the crowning glories of Israeli intelligence".[10]

The Ben Barka affair

The exiled opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka was abducted in Paris on 29 October 1965 and never seen again. In 1975 TIME reported that Morocco had arranged for the Mossad to train its secret service, and that the Mossad had refused to supply poison but agreed to help tail Ben Barka in Geneva.[2] A 2025 book by Ronen Bergman and Stephen Smith, based on confidential archives, argues that Israeli intelligence was involved "from beginning to end". Middle East Eye reports that, according to the book, the operation was overseen by Ahmed Dlimi of Moroccan security and by Eitan. A Mossad operative bought shovels and corrosive chemicals and stored them in a safe house that the Mossad rented for the Moroccan unit.[11]

Liaison offices and normalisation

The WJC says Morocco established links with "Israel" after the Oslo Accords. "Israel" opened a liaison office in Rabat in 1994, and ties were severed in 2000 after the start of the second intifada.[1] On 10 December 2020 the Trump White House announced that Morocco and "Israel" would resume full diplomatic relations and reopen the liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv. On the same day the US recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and announced plans for a consulate there.[12][13] The joint declaration signed in Rabat on 22 December 2020 by Morocco, the United States and "Israel", whose signatories included the Israeli national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, provided for direct flights, "full diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations" and the reopening of the liaison offices.[7] Al Jazeera noted that the US move overturned decades of policy and an international consensus that Western Sahara's status should be settled by a UN referendum.[3] In July 2023 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote to the king that "Israel" would "recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over the territory of Western Sahara" and was considering a consulate in Dakhla.[14]

The 2021 defence agreement

On 24 November 2021 the Israeli defence minister, Benny Gantz, and Morocco's minister for national defence administration, Abdellatif Loudiyi, signed a memorandum of understanding in Rabat. It was the first official visit by an Israeli defence minister to one of the Arab states that normalised ties in 2020. Al Jazeera said the agreement laid the foundation for security cooperation, intelligence sharing and future arms sales. Gantz said it would "enable Israeli military exports here".[3]

Arms, drones and factories

The SIPRI register shows Israeli arms reaching Morocco long before normalisation, including 240 RAM armoured reconnaissance vehicles delivered in 1983–84 and 20 radars for F-5E fighters delivered in 2003–05. Since 2022 Morocco has ordered three Barak-MX air defence systems (a $500 million deal) with 225 missiles, PULS rocket launchers with AccuLAR and EXTRA rockets, Predator Hawk missiles, two Ofeq-13 surveillance satellites (a $1 billion deal, with delivery planned for 2029) and 36 ATMOS-2000 self-propelled guns.[15] In June 2023 the head of the Israeli liaison office, Shai Cohen, said Elbit Systems would open two factories in Morocco to produce "defense systems".[16] In November 2025 BlueBird Aero Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, opened a plant at Benslimane, near Casablanca, to build SpyX loitering munitions ("kamikaze" drones), with a programme to train Moroccan engineers.[17] The Jerusalem Post noted that BlueBird had made no official statement and that the reports came from local media.[18]

Pegasus

Citizen Lab's 2018 survey of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware identified an operator, ATLAS, that appeared to focus on Morocco, with suspected infections in Morocco, Algeria, France, Tunisia and elsewhere.[19] In 2021 the Pegasus Project consortium named Morocco as one of ten governments believed to have selected numbers in a leaked list of potential targets. The Guardian reported that the numbers appear to have included President Emmanuel Macron of France and dozens of other French officials, as well as King Mohammed VI himself. NSO denied that Macron or the king had been targets, and Morocco denied spying on foreign leaders.[20] Amnesty International, which did the forensic work for the project, also listed the Moroccan prime minister, Saadeddine El Othmani, among the leaders whose numbers appeared.[21]

Gaza war, the liaison office and protests

In October 2023, after the start of the Gaza war, the staff of the Israeli liaison office in Rabat flew back to "Israel". The Israeli foreign ministry denied that the office had been closed.[22] Al Jazeera reported regular protests from October 2023, with thousands marching in Rabat against normalisation.[23] On 6 April 2025 tens of thousands protested in Rabat, in one of the capital's largest demonstrations in months.[4]

Trade

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records Israeli exports to Morocco of $38.4 million in 2022, $62.5 million in 2023, $95.0 million in 2024 and $115.7 million in 2025, and imports of $17.8 million, $16.2 million, $14.4 million and $12.5 million.[24]

Migration and aliyah

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records Moroccan-born immigrants to "Israel" as 28,263 in 1948–51, 95,945 in 1952–60, 130,507 in 1961–71, 7,780 in 1972–79, 3,809 in 1980–89, 2,877 in 1990–99 and 6,103 in 2000–2020, then 447 in 2021, 306 in 2022 and 123 in 2023.[25] The Mimouna festival, celebrated by Moroccan Jews after Passover, has also become a national holiday in "Israel". Moroccan Jews from around the world, including from "Israel", make pilgrimages to the tombs of sages in Morocco.[1]

Political interference

TIME and the Bergman–Smith book describe Israeli intelligence helping Moroccan security services against Ben Barka, the leading opponent of Hassan II.[2][11] The 2020 normalisation was tied to US recognition of Moroccan claims in Western Sahara, and in 2023 "Israel" also recognised those claims.[13][14] Al Jazeera reported that very few Moroccans supported normalisation before the deal.[23]

Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Morocco go back to at least 2002. Flight records show Bill Clinton flying on Epstein's plane from Morocco in July 2002, after attending a wedding there,[26] and the BBC reports that Epstein attended King Mohammed VI's wedding that year with Ghislaine Maxwell, at Clinton's invitation.[27] Virginia Giuffre wrote in her memoir that Epstein and Maxwell flew her to Tangier to inspect the interiors of luxury properties, at a time when Epstein wanted to redesign parts of his island home in Moroccan style.[27]

  • In 2010 Epstein appears to have asked Peter Mandelson to find him an assistant who could "fin[d] a house in Marrakesh".[27]
  • In April 2011 the routing for a planned tour of West Africa started in Marrakech.[28] In November 2011, in an exchange about Epstein's wish for a palace in Morocco, Senegal's Karim Wade joked: "Do not forget in the house the harem part" and "Happy to manage it."[29]
  • The documents describe periodic visits from 2012, when Epstein stayed in the Palmeraie district of Marrakech, home to Jabor al Thani of the Qatari royal family, whom he called his "Arab brother".[27]
  • From 2011 Epstein pursued the Bin Ennakhil palace in the Palmeraie. His girlfriend Karyna Shuliak led the search and made bids on his behalf, and he visited the property in 2018. On 5 July 2019, the day before his arrest, he signed a $14.95 million wire transfer after agreeing to buy the offshore company that owned the palace for €18 million. His accountant cancelled the transfer three days after the arrest, and the purchase was never completed.[27] Reuters reported that Charles Schwab moved about $27.7 million in payments for Epstein to the Moroccan realtor and flagged them in a suspicious activity report to the US Treasury on 13 July 2019.[30]
  • A 2019 US Marshals Service email records that Epstein travelled to Morocco on 25 April 2019 without reporting the trip, as sex-offender rules required.[31]

The BBC found no reference in the files to Epstein discussing Morocco as a refuge from US authorities.[27] BBC News Afrique counted 199 mentions of Morocco in the released files, and says that such mentions mostly reflect planned, postponed or cancelled trips and personal or business contacts.[32]

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 World Jewish Congress, Community in Morocco World Jewish Congress, accessed 20 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 TIME, ESPIONAGE: The Murder of Mehdi Ben Barka TIME, 29 December 1975.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Al Jazeera, Morocco, Israel sign first-ever defence agreement in Rabat Al Jazeera, 24 November 2021.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Al Jazeera, Mass protests in Morocco against Israel's war in Gaza and US support Al Jazeera, 6 April 2025.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Morocco US Department of State, 2024.
  6. ↑ Biographie de Mr A. Azoulay Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras, undated, accessed 20 October 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Joint Declaration (Kingdom of Morocco, United States of America and State of Israel), Rabat, 22 December 2020, US Department of State (US government-side).
  8. ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 20 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Center for Israel Education, Operation Yachin Begins Bringing Jews From Morocco israeled.org, accessed 20 October 2026 (Center for Israel Education-side).
  10. ↑ Ynet, Mossad listened in on Arab states' preparations for Six-Day War Ynetnews, 15 October 2016.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Middle East Eye, Israel's involvement in death of Moroccan opposition leader revealed Middle East Eye, 22 October 2025.
  12. ↑ The White House, President Donald J. Trump Has Brokered Peace Between Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco whitehouse.gov (archived), 11 December 2020 (US government-side).
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 The White House, Proclamation on Recognizing The Sovereignty Of The Kingdom Of Morocco Over The Western Sahara whitehouse.gov (archived), 10 December 2020 (US government-side).
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 European Jewish Press, In letter to King Mohammed VI, Israeli PM Netanyahu announces Israel's recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara EJP, 17 July 2023.
  15. ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database, trade registers, Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, generated 20 October 2026 (library copy).
  16. ↑ Bladi.net, Israeli Defense Firm Elbit Systems to Open Two Drone Factories in Morocco Bladi.net, 13 June 2023.
  17. ↑ The Defense Post, Israeli Company Opens Kamikaze Drone Plant in Morocco The Defense Post, 14 November 2025.
  18. ↑ The Jerusalem Post, BlueBird opens suicide drone facility in Morocco The Jerusalem Post, 17 November 2025.
  19. ↑ Citizen Lab, Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries The Citizen Lab, 18 September 2018 (critical).
  20. ↑ Angelique Chrisafis, Dan Sabbagh, Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Michael Safi, Emmanuel Macron identified in leaked Pegasus project data The Guardian, 20 July 2021.
  21. ↑ Amnesty International, Pegasus Project: Macron among world leaders selected as potential targets of NSO spyware Amnesty International, July 2021 (critical).
  22. ↑ Sara Zouiten, Israel Denies Closing Rabat Office, Says Relations with Morocco are 'Strong' Morocco World News, 19 October 2023.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Simon Speakman Cordall, Will Morocco stay the course on Israel normalisation? Al Jazeera, 12 January 2024.
  24. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
  25. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024 (Israeli government-side).
  26. ↑ Angelo Fichera and Saranac Hale Spencer, The Epstein Connections Fueling Conspiracy Theories FactCheck.org, 15 August 2019.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5 Emir Nader and Samuel Owers, Epstein tried to buy a palace in Morocco days before his arrest in 2019 BBC News, 27 February 2026.
  28. ↑ Email to Jeffrey Epstein, "Africa prelim", 30 April 2011, US Department of Justice Epstein files release, Data Set 11, EFTA02721529 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
  29. ↑ Kevin G. Hall and Zack Kopplin, Epstein Made Efforts to Free the Son of Senegal's Former President After Corruption Conviction OCCRP, 10 February 2026.
  30. ↑ Naomi Rovnick, Brad Heath and Nivedita Balu, A palace in Marrakesh: How Schwab moved $27.7 million in payments for Epstein days before his arrest Reuters, 20 February 2026.
  31. ↑ US Attorney's Office (Virgin Islands) and US Marshals Service, "Jeffrey Epstein: Possible IML Violation", email of 8 July 2019, DOJ release EFTA00018159–60 (mirror), accessed 20 October 2026.
  32. ↑ Isidore Kouwonou, Ce que les documents dans l'affaire Epstein révèlent sur l'Afrique et certaines personnalités BBC News Afrique, 25 February 2026 (in French).
Retrieved from "https://powerbase.info/index.php?title=Jewish,_Zionist_and_Israeli_connections_to_Morocco&oldid=294538"