Moroccan activist summoned by police over anti-Israel online post

Moroccan activist summoned by police over anti-Israel online post
The Moroccan activist accused authorities "of using such cases against activists and bloggers to restrict freedom of opinion."
2 min read
07 September, 2022
"(...) solidarity with the Palestinian martyrs, denouncing the crimes of the Zionist entity and opposing normalisation has became a crime in our country," wrote the movement. [Getty]

Moroccan activist and Islamist political leader Hassan Bennajeh was reportedly summoned over an anti-normalisation online post, he announced Monday.

"I received a summons from the Judicial Police in Rabat last Thursday, and accordingly I came this morning to its headquarters, and found that the issue was related to a complaint by the Public Prosecution against me because of an opinion post I wrote last May on the occasion of the martyrdom of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and about normalisation," Bennajeh wrote on  Monday in a Facebook post.

The post in question was published last May on Bennajeh's previous Facebook account, which was reportedly taken down for its anti-Israel posts.

Some Moroccan media said Bennajeh's post read: "They [Israeli officials] killed Shireen in the occupied lands there, and receive a hero's welcome in the occupied lands here [Morocco]. Targeting, Targeting. May God have mercy on you. Normalisation is a betrayal."

The use of words "targeting" in the Moroccan dialect (teniash) could be used in different contexts one of them is "shooting"

Bennajeh, who is a member of the general secretariat of the Al Adl Wal Ihsan movement, an Islamist movement banned by Moroccan authorities, said his post "was interpreted differently from my intention, (…) the context proves my intention and refutes any other distorting interpretation, which I explained in the lawsuit- verbal." 

The activist accused Moroccan authorities "of using such cases against activists and bloggers to restrict freedom of opinion."

Solidarity with the Islamist activist poured from different political factions, namely the Moroccan movement against normalisation, one of the only groups that bring together conservatives and progressives in Morocco.

"We condemn the normalisation policies of the Moroccan regime, which crossed all borders, to the extent that solidarity with the Palestinian martyrs, denouncing the crimes of the Zionist entity and opposing normalisation with it became a crime in our country," wrote the movement.

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Morocco and Israel normalised ties under US auspices. The deal has also granted Morocco the US of Rabat's sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

The deal was branded as a national movement to win the long-standing dispute over Western Sahara, which is collectively considered a national cause that all Moroccan political factions support.

However, some Moroccan movements, namely Al-Adl Wa Lihssan, refused to assent to the deal, arguing that national causes can not be solved by mending ties with an apartheid state.

The recent sexual assault allegations and exploitation of Moroccan women working at the Israeli office in Rabat have mounted anger against the presence of Tel Aviv officials in the Kingdom.