RMC columnist Mehdi Ghezzar was heavily criticized and fired from the channel for denouncing Jewish influence on Moroccan politics during a broadcast on Algerian television.
RMC management announced on Wednesday, August 28, its decision to “put an end to Mehdi Ghezzar’s participation in the show The Big Mouths of which he was a columnist. The cause was much-discussed remarks made three days earlier during a broadcast on August 25 on Al24News, an Algerian public television channel. “The Moroccan people do not have the right to demonstrate their discontent, their solidarity with the people of Gaza. By royal decree. It is forbidden. They risk prison sentences. They do not have the right to talk about it in mosques,” said Mehdi Ghezzar, before making fun of the“Jewish influence” behind these supposed decisions. While one of the other guests asserts on the set that André Azoulay, a Jewish advisor to the king, was behind the said royal decree, the columnist, ironically feigning ignorance, declares “Oh really? Oh really?”before the plateau repeatedly evokes the“Zionist entity.”
In addition to being tinged with anti-Semitism, the statements made are also inaccurate. Thus, concerning the ban on mentioning Gaza in mosque sermons, Mehdi Ghezzar seems to be relaying information that circulated almost a year ago after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, and that was denied in the fall. In October, a fax from the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs circulated on social networks. This document, supposedly sent to various mosques, demands that:“ban any sermon on the ongoing massacres in Palestine”On October 25, the ministry denied the authenticity of the fax in a press release, explaining that it had traced the origin of this document, published on a Moroccan website in the Tangier region.
The claim that the “The Moroccan people do not have the right to demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Gaza,” due to a royal decree, is hardly more supported. Contacted by CheckNewsMourad Elajouti, president of the Moroccan Lawyers Club, who reacted to the columnist’s comments, denounces fake news. There is no “absolutely no decree prohibiting the organization of demonstrations in support of the people of Gaza,” he says. As evidenced, he adds, by the many “organized demonstrations” over the past six months. In fact, as evidenced by photos and videos on social media, pro-Palestinian demonstrations and rallies are regularly held across the country. The Moroccan Front to Support Palestine and Against Normalization called for a demonstration on August 27 in front of the Parliament in Rabat. In videos published on August 28 on the association’s Facebook page, we can actually see demonstrators gathered in front of the Moroccan House of Representatives and displaying Palestinian flags. According to photos and videos shared by the association on its Facebook account, rallies were organized in August, on August 20 and 27. The same thing happened in Marrakech, where the local branch of the association published a video on August 6 of a demonstration that took place in the streets of the city. Ali Amar, co-founder of the Moroccan media outlet Le Desk, confirmed to CheckNews that the assertion of a ban on gatherings in support of Gaza is “totally unfounded.”
This false information comes at a time when Morocco is accused, notably by its Algerian neighbour, of surrendering “accomplice” of Israel. In December 2020, Morocco agreed to normalize its relations with the Hebrew state, a historic ally of the United States, obtaining in return from Washington the recognition of its sovereignty over Western Sahara. This rapprochement with Israel, which has since led to various cooperations, had from the outset been poorly perceived by a large part of the Moroccan population. The strikes on Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on October 7 have largely exacerbated this unease, and the criticism, on the subject. The Moroccan demonstrations of support for Palestine, explains Francesco Collin, researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies, are also an opportunity to contest the normalization of relations with Israel.
If Francesco Collin also denies the existence of a royal decree prohibiting support for Gaza, this does not mean total freedom either. There is certainly “less repression” of this type of demonstrations “but that doesn’t mean there is no control, especially on social networks,” indicates the researcher. Who explains for example that there is “risks”, especially if the “criticisms aimed at normalization affect the figure of the king”, who is considered “inviolable in the Moroccan constitution”.
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