University community slams partnership with Israel

Morocco’s National Federation of Education, the National Union of Higher Education and the National Union of Moroccan Students have rejected efforts to normalise higher educational relations with Israel following a recent announcement by the governments in Rabat and Tel Aviv to implement academic partnership programmes.

But the ministries that entered into the memorandum of understanding in May 2022 stated the collaboration will advance science in areas of sustainable development, such as green energy and agriculture.

Morocco resumed diplomatic ties with Israel in December 2020, becoming the fourth Arab country to do so after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan, in addition to Egypt and Jordan, which had officially recognised Israel by signing peace agreements in 1979 and 1994 respectively.

Letter slams Moroccan ministry

The National Federation of Education (Fédération Nationale de l’Enseignement, or FNE) criticised the development in a 13 June letter to Abdellatif Miraoui, the minister of higher education, scientific research and innovation in Morocco.

“At a time when we find prestigious universities and higher institutions across the world boycotting the Zionist entity and reserving academic and scientific cooperation and exchange with it … we find you [Morocco’s Ministry of Higher Education] in a normalisation process … in violation of the feelings of the Moroccan people …” the letter stated.

“You sacrificed the Moroccan university and offered it to the apartheid state and the Israeli occupation, by receiving the minister of science, technology and space from the Zionist entity, and for signing a memorandum of understanding in the field of scientific research and technology,” the FNE statement said.

According to the statement, the agreements were paving the way for the recognition of Israel and a disregard for the crimes against Palestinian people, including the occupation of Palestine land.

The FNE said the agreement did not represent the position of university professors and students.

In a supporting perspective on 8 June, Morocco’s National Union of Higher Education, (Syndicat National de l’Enseignement Supérieur – Maroc: SNESup) also denounced the involvement of higher education institutions in the normalisation of diplomatic relations.

The national secretary of the National Union of Moroccan Students Saber Imadanyen issued a statement saying the memorandum of understanding between the two countries marked the start of a normalisation process and that some universities took steps in that direction.

For example, the first academic agreement of its kind was signed on 31 March by the Technion – the Israel Institute of Technology – and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco.

Imadanyen made an appeal to the Moroccan university community to reject and resist the agreement. He indicated that the matter requires “an organised and united struggle”.

What do the governments say?

In his speech at the signing of the memorandum of understanding, Minister Miraoui specified that the agreement will contribute to the sharing of experiences and expertise, encourage the mobility of students and researchers, as well as the setting up of joint scientific research programmes in areas such as green energy, sustainable agriculture, the health sector and that of Industry 4.0.

Orit Farkash-Hacohen, the Israeli minister of innovation, science and technology, said that the cooperation will allow the two countries to pool their efforts to meet the common challenges that face them in areas of sustainability and competitiveness such as water, environment, renewable energies, mobility, health and new technologies.