Morocco’s shifting geopolitical calculus: How neocolonial economic ties and electioneering undermine Palestinian solidarity in North Africa
Original framing: “‘A blatant affront’: Israeli embassy upgrade angers pro-Palestine voices in Morocco” — Middle East Eye
The current normalization follows a century-long pattern of Morocco’s foreign policy being shaped by external coercion. After the 1912 *Treaty of Fez*, which turned Morocco into a French protectorate, the monarchy’s foreign relations have repeatedly been dictated by Western powers—whether during the Cold War (aligning with the U.S. against Soviet-backed movements) or today (prioritizing EU and U.S. investment over Palestinian rights). The 1956 *Western Sahara invasion*, backed by France and Spain, set a precedent for Morocco’s willingness to betray regional alliances when faced with economic or military incentives. The headline’s framing of this as a 'blatant affront' obscures how Morocco’s elite have long calculated that strategic alliances with Israel and the West are necessary for survival in a globalized economy.
This headline obscures a systemic dynamic where Morocco’s foreign policy is not shaped by moral choice but by structural coercion—rooted in centuries of colonial debt, neoliberal economic dependency, and the geopolitical calculus of the monarchy’s elite.
The normalization with Israel is less about a sudden betrayal of Palestine and more about the logical endpoint of a century-long pattern where Morocco’s rulers have repeatedly prioritized foreign investment and Western approval over domestic solidarity. Indigenous Amazigh communities, Sahrawi refugees, and marginalized labor movements have long resisted such deals, framing them as extensions of colonial exploitation, yet their voices are systematically excluded from mainstream discourse. The trickster irony here is that the same liberal media framework that condemns this normalization as a 'blatant affront' has for decades ignored the very mechanisms—Western-backed structural adjustment programs, Israeli-agricultural exploitation, and Gulf state funding—that have forced Morocco into this position. To break this cycle, Morocco must reclaim its foreign policy autonomy through economic sovereignty, amplify the voices of its marginalized populations, and forge alternative partnerships with the Global South—all while recognizing that its struggle for justice is inextricably linked to those of Palestine, Western Sahara, and the broader decolonization project.