Nueva cooperación entre Marruecos e Israel en la excavación de una sinagoga destruida

A team of researchers from Morocco, Israel and France recently conducted an archaeological expedition in the Atlas Mountains, where a destroyed synagogue was found. There, archaeologists discovered ancient artefacts dating back to the daily life of Jews in the Kingdom, and the new mission is to try to preserve these objects.

David Goyori, a member of the research team and a geographer from the Sorbonne University in Paris, was one of those who recorded the expedition for i24NEWS - Israel's television channel - to demonstrate that the union of Jews and Moroccans is already historical, as well as to understand the importance of the findings in an attempt to situate the history of the Jewish people in the Alawite country.

"We found thousands of pages of religious texts and handwritten texts by different Jews. There have been many Sahrawi Jews in Morocco for more than 2,000 years in this region of the country," said the geographer. 

Goyori also spoke of the relationship between Muslims and Jews in the area, as well as the recent friendship between the two peoples. "What we want to study is the daily life of the Jewish communities among the Muslim communities, and how they have been able to organise very important trade routes and networks from West Africa to the north of the continent, passing through Asia.

In addition, the geographer highlighted the cooperation between the universities of the two countries in rescuing the objects stolen after the theft by thieves who in turn destroyed the time. He also spoke of the historical importance of these findings and of the team's plans "to document all the links between the desert region and the African ports, the team must now translate the archives of the ancient synagogue to understand in depth what was happening in the other temples of the region", affirmed the researcher. 

The relationship between Morocco and Israel is in the midst of an upsurge of cooperation and agreements that the two countries have been developing in recent times. On the part of the Kingdom, several ideas are being developed to highlight the Jewish heritage that exists in the area. A few weeks ago, a project was announced, supervised by King Mohammed VI, to rehabilitate certain places of worship and of interest for the heritage of the Jewish religion. The idea is to rehabilitate hundreds of synagogues, cemeteries and holy places for the Jewish community living in the country. In addition, the restoration of the original names of some Jewish neighbourhoods and the renovation of 13,000 Hebrew tombs in the cemetery of the city of Fez have also been announced.

Another of the acts where the re-establishment of friendship can be seen is that the Alawi country decided to celebrate the "Hanukah" holiday for the second consecutive year as a union between the two communities. Moreover, the two territories have reopened their respective embassies, which had been closed since 2000 following the Second Intifada. It is worth noting that several ministers from the two countries have been able to travel between the nations to reach cooperation and business agreements.

Above all, there has been great collaboration between Rabat and Tel Aviv in military matters with the acquisition of security and intelligence materials, as well as the creation of a direct airline between the two nations to link the Jewish communities in Morocco, as well as the Muslim communities in Israel.

The initiation of the restoration of diplomatic relations has been influenced by the Abraham Accords, signed a year ago and orchestrated by the administration of former President Donald Trump, in the White House in Washington D.C. This memorandum bridges the gap between various Arab countries and Israel after decades of problems between the two communities. Since then, a new geopolitical scenario has been created that has shaped the change in relations and is having great relevance at the global level.