Se constituye el Círculo de Amistad Marruecos-Israel

The city of Casablanca has witnessed the creation of the new Morocco-Israel Friendship Circle. This means a further step in the deepening of diplomatic relations between the North African country and Israel after the establishment of contacts between the two nations under the auspices of the United States, a process which at the end of last year also meant American support for the Alawite kingdom in its formula of broad autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty within the postulates of the United Nations as a formula for resolving the Saharawi conflict. 

The Morocco-Israel Friendship Circle, chaired by Gabriel Banon, former adviser to Yasser Arafat, historic figure of Palestine, is thus constituted. This association has received authorisation from the various administrations and has been able to be founded thanks to this permission. 

As reported by L'Economiste, the organisation's board of directors is as follows: Gabriel Banon (president), Jacques Knafo (vice-president), Mustapha Sehimi (secretary general), Jean-Luc Martinet (treasurer), and Mohamed Berrada, Souad Mekkaoui, Nadia Salah, Valérie Benjio, Abdelkader Retnani and Naïm Guessous as members. 

Through US mediation, both Morocco and Israel established "fraternal and full diplomatic relations" with a view to fostering cooperation in many fields between the two nations, as demonstrated by recent economic, defence and technological agreements between the two countries. The Morocco-Israel Friendship Circle also aims to follow this path, with the guideline of common collaboration set by King Mohammed VI.

The aim of the Circle is to establish a framework for dialogue and exchanges focused on the development of cultural, economic and social relations between the two countries and peoples. It also aims to lay the foundations for a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East, which is also an objective of Moroccan foreign policy. 

Thus, the aims of this organisation, aimed at developing ties between Morocco and Israel, are as follows:

• Working for cooperation between Morocco and Israel in culture, science, education, research, the arts and Israeli-Moroccan charities.
• The exchange of experiences and information of a cultural and scientific nature between its members through the organization of meetings, seminars and conferences, in Morocco and abroad.
• The creation and maintenance of relations between its members and the strengthening of ties with other similar associations in Morocco and abroad.
• The dissemination of knowledge and information related to the promotion of cooperation between Morocco and Israel.

Thus continues the good development of close ties between Morocco and Israel, something that was also facilitated thanks to the past Abraham Accords of September 2020 which meant the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and other Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain under the auspices of the United States Government, all of which has meant a significant step forward in the normalization of the Middle East situation between the Israeli state and the surrounding Arab countries.