Morocco Hosts Jewish Festival Amid Official Presence and Prayers for Israeli Soldiers: What’s the Story?

The continued expansion of Israeli influence in Morocco has stirred widespread anger and condemnation, amid growing warnings of its potentially grave consequences, particularly as it comes against the backdrop of what many describe as the genocidal war waged by the occupying state in Gaza for nearly two years.

In this context, the annual Hiloula celebration, held in the third week of September 2025 in the coastal city of Essaouira, sparked a wave of outrage across Moroccan circles.

According to the Hebrew-language outlet Kikar Ha Shabbat, thousands of Jews from around the world flocked to Essaouira to take part in what is described as the largest Jewish religious gathering in Morocco.

The report noted that prayers recited during the religious ceremony included “heartfelt pleas for the safety of Israeli soldiers and for the swift and safe return of all hostages held in Gaza.”

The event was attended by Yossi Ben David, head of “Israel’s” liaison office in Rabat, alongside senior Moroccan officials, both civilian and military, as well as Essaouira’s provincial governor, Mohammed Rachid, the head of the local religious council, Mohamed Mankit, representatives of local authoritie,s and several elected officials.

Morocco signed a tripartite agreement with “Tel Aviv” and Washington in late 2020, a move that has faced persistent popular opposition, often expressed through mass demonstrations in the capital Rabat, particularly in the wake of Operation al-Aqsa Flood.

Activists, experts, and politicians continue to warn of the dangers posed by “Israel’s” deepening presence in Morocco, which they say now spans political, economic, social, cultural, and even military spheres, raising alarms over its implications for Morocco’s national security.

Serious Slip

One of the most prominent reactions came from former Minister of State Mustapha Ramid, who described the organization of the religious celebration as a grave mistake, a blatant provocation and a dangerous slip that the authorities must be careful not to repeat, let alone publicly promote.

In a Facebook post dated September 22, 2025, Ramid stressed that if it was true that prayers were offered for what he called the army of genocide and for everything associated with unimaginable crimes against humanity, then the incident amounted to a blatant disregard for the feelings of the national institution representatives who were present, as well as for the sentiments of ordinary Moroccans.

The former minister added that “nothing justifies turning a religious practice, which is a guaranteed right, into an act of glorifying the terrorism of a rogue state, a criminal entity whose leaders are pursued worldwide under arrest warrants issued by international criminal justice.”

Ali Bouabid, head of the Abderrahim Bouabid Foundation, argued that “what took place in Essaouira was not merely a religious occasion, but a carefully choreographed political demonstration attended by Moroccan officials.”

In a Facebook post dated September 22, 2025, Bouabid wrote that “instead of respect and solemnity, the organizers exploited religion to serve an extremist political agenda, openly declaring their support for Netanyahu’s genocidal policies against the Palestinian people.”

“While international rabbis who signed the ‘Moral Reckoning’ appeal called for compassion and justice for all, their Moroccan counterparts in Essaouira dropped the mask and revealed their true stance.”

“They chose to recite prayers ‘for the safety of Israeli soldiers,’ glorifying an army accused of crimes against humanity, without showing the slightest sympathy for the tragedy of the Palestinian people or offering even a token condemnation of settlement expansion,” Bouabid said.

“Essaouira has become a platform for the most extreme expressions of Zionism, cloaked in tradition and authority, turning religious ritual into political propaganda, with complete disregard for the feelings of the overwhelming majority of Moroccans.”

“These actions can no longer be dismissed as mere opinions, but rather represent the pinnacle of an organized assault on the nation’s core principles,” he concluded.

Religious Readings

As part of what critics see as its habit of amplifying the “pro-Israel” narrative, the UAE-backed local outlet Hespress carried comments from Jacky Kadosh, head of the Jewish community in the Marrakech-Safi region, who said that “the prayers held during the Hiloula aimed to call for peace for all, not for the continuation of war.”

Speaking to Hespress on September 22, 2025, Kadosh insisted that the Hiloula celebrations in Morocco have nothing to do with the war in Gaza, describing them as a gathering of Jews from across the world in Morocco’s “land of peace.”

He stressed that the Hiloula “is completely unrelated to what is happening in Gaza,” adding that the prayers were offered “against the continuation of the war, not in favor of it.”

Hespress noted that the anniversary of Rabbi Chaim Pinto’s death is marked on the 26th day of the Hebrew month of Elul, when thousands of visitors from the diaspora and Moroccans living abroad converge on Essaouira to visit his grave in the old Jewish cemetery and offer prayers there.

According to the outlet, the celebration includes religious readings, candle lighting, requests for blessings and healing at the tomb, collective singing and prayers, and expressions of belonging to the Moroccan homeland, as well as a celebration of shared history and coexistence between Jews and Muslims.

Historic Scandal

In his reading of the event and its aftermath, Aziz Hennaoui, secretary-general of the Moroccan Observatory Against Normalization, warned that what took place carried numerous negative signals and dangerous implications.

Speaking to Al-Estiklal, Hennaoui said the first striking element was the scene on the Hiloula stage, where a small portrait of King Mohammed VI was placed below an enormous, brightly lit image of Rabbi Chaim Pinto, one of the Jewish community’s revered saints, who is buried in Essaouira.

Hennaoui questioned why the organizers of such a major event, attended by people from inside and outside Morocco, insisted on this particular visual hierarchy in the placement and size of the two images.

He also wondered why all representatives of Essaouira’s local authorities remained silent, failing to flag the issue during preparations, particularly the territorial, interior and security services, or during the ceremony itself, in order to “correct” what he described as a scandalous affront to the state and its head.

“To grasp the seriousness of this,” Hennaoui said, “imagine if the event had been a Moroccan political or civic activity, rather than this ‘private’ Jewish Hiloula. Would the authorities have remained silent, looked the other way, or failed to register even the smallest remark before or after, complete with sanctions and reprimands for the organizers?”

He described a “second historic scandal,” referring to prayers offered for the Israeli Occupation Forces by Rabbi Pinto at the heart of the annual Hiloula, in the presence of a wide spectrum of Essaouira’s local authorities.

Hennaoui criticized what he called the silence of Morocco’s “pro-Israel propaganda outlets” that often demonize Palestine and its supporters, noting that these voices, usually quick to accuse pro-Palestinian activists of insulting or offending the monarchy, did not raise a word of protest in this case.

He warned that the state was being humiliated in full view of its representatives, arguing that “Morocco has become ‘Jewish land,’ as put by Zamane magazine, a ‘holy kingdom for the children of Israel,’ as stated by Moroccan Facts magazine, and a playground for the Israeli liaison office.”

Separately, Hennaoui issued an open question to Minister of Religious Endowments Ahmed Toufiq, urging him to take a stance on the participation of Essaouira’s local religious council head in the event.

He added that Toufiq’s recent decision to dismiss the head of the scientific council of Figuig had not been prompted by any misconduct or serious error, but merely because he expressed a personal opinion on what he described as the genocide in Gaza.

Mohamed Aouam, a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence and higher objectives of Sharia, condemned the religious event organized by “the sons of Zion” in honor of Rabbi Pinto, whom he described as one of the fiercest enemies of Palestinians, saying it featured “the notables of normalization” in their red fezzes and formal dress.

“The worst part,” Aouam told Al-Estiklal, “was seeing them all listening silently to evil, as prayers were offered for victory to the criminal Zionist gang, while they chanted their hymns and inanities.”

He added that the Hiloula organizers had deliberately placed the king’s portrait beneath the rabbi’s, in a larger format, to send a clear message, “We stand above you in power.”

“What is more surprising,” Aouam continued, “is that neither the normalization camp nor their online echo chambers reacted or condemned this slight, as they usually do when targeting dissidents. This means only one thing, the Zionist Hiloula faction has swallowed Morocco whole and subjugated its people. This is the bitter fruit of this ill-fated normalization.”

Aouam concluded by arguing that those who embraced normalization committed their “own Hiloula” by signing the ill-omened agreement that, in his words, defiled Moroccan soil and turned it into fertile ground for “Zionist swine,” enabling them to penetrate all institutions, including the military and security apparatus, in ways unprecedented in Moroccan politics.

He said Morocco must “recover its authenticity and safeguard its principles” by putting an end to both “the Hiloula of normalization” and “the Hiloula of Zionist stupefaction.”

Extreme Astonishment

Coinciding with the Hiloula celebration in Essaouira, the “International Forum of Women for Peace” was held, with several Israeli participants in attendance.

In response, the Zahraa Forum for Moroccan Women organized a protest on Friday, September 19, 2025, denouncing what it called all forms of cultural and feminist normalization disguised under deceptive peace slogans.

In a statement released on the occasion, the forum condemned various attempts to whitewash what it described as the crimes of the Israeli occupation, including through such international gatherings.

The statement stressed that the protest was held “to support the just Palestinian cause and to reaffirm the Moroccan people’s unwavering rejection of normalization and their support for the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights.”

The forum also rejected what it called “illusory calls for peace with the usurping entity,” declaring solidarity with Palestinian women and the resilience of the Palestinian people as they face genocide and siege in Gaza.

It further warned the Moroccan public about the danger of exploiting women’s slogans to push agendas that normalize ties with “Israel” and dilute what it called “authentic women’s struggle.”

In the same vein, the regional secretary of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) in Essaouira said she was deeply shocked by the city’s reception of women from what she called the occupying entity, under the cover of a so-called women’s peace forum.

The Islamist opposition party, in a statement dated September 23, 2025, expressed its categorical rejection and strong condemnation of what it described as the hosting of Zionist women complicit in and supportive of the massacres committed by “Israel” against the Palestinian people in Gaza and across Palestine, under what it called a false banner of “peace.”

The statement continued, “This comes at a time when the occupying entity is killing and displacing thousands of women and children as part of a comprehensive campaign of genocide and systematic ethnic cleansing.”

In contrast, the party expressed its “deep respect for the noble stance of a number of men and women from Essaouira, who confirmed during the protest organized on the sidelines of the forum their refusal to host Zionists on Essaouira’s soil, considering it a whitewashing of the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.”

Strategic Risks

Several Moroccan public figures have repeatedly warned about the strategic dangers that normalization poses to the country’s social and political fabric.

In this context, Ahmed Ouihmane, president of the Moroccan Observatory Against Normalization, argued that the process of normalization with what he called the “criminal Zionist entity,” which began in late 2020, was a perilous step that placed Morocco at the heart of a highly explosive equation.

In an article titled “Down with Normalization So Morocco Does Not Fall,” published on his Facebook page on August 16, 2025, Ouihmane wrote that “today, five years later, the picture is clearer for everyone. We are not facing a mere diplomatic relationship, but a tsunami of Zionist infiltration that has penetrated every sector and sphere, to the point of threatening the cohesion of the state itself.”

The human rights activist argued that the promises made to justify normalization were nothing more than illusions, while the tangible results have manifested in deep and dangerous penetration of Morocco’s institutions, sovereignty and national unity, posing a serious threat to the country’s security, stability and territorial and social integrity.

Ouihmane pointed to public opinion surveys, such as those conducted by Arab Barometer researchers, which show that nearly 78 percent of Moroccans reject normalization outright, while only a tiny minority, no more than 7 percent, support it. “Yet,” he wrote, “the voice of this small minority has become state policy, imposed on everyone.”

“This raises the fundamental democratic question: how can the decision of a marginal minority take precedence over the overwhelming will of the people? Is this not a double tyranny, an internal tyranny of sovereign decision-making and an external tyranny of imposing the agenda of a colonial entity on an entire nation?”

Ouihmane stressed that the gravest danger of normalization lies in opening the door wide to Mossad, as well as to Zionist networks of influence, allowing them to penetrate the very heart of Morocco, “to the point of targeting the head of state himself,” something he said was confirmed by “shocking evidence.”

He warned that these practices are not isolated missteps, but evidence of a deep and organized infiltration aimed at undermining Morocco’s core identity, and at sowing doubt among the people about their national, historical, religious and political symbols.

Ouihmane stressed that this widespread anger over “Israel’s” growing presence, and the way it has developed, places the state in front of an impossible equation: either return to the will of its people and safeguard its sovereignty, or continue down a dangerous path that puts it on a collision course with 93 percent of its citizens and with history itself.

He argued that normalization has brought nothing but illusions and nightmares. 

It has neither resolved the Western Sahara issue nor delivered economic prosperity, but has instead opened the door to dangerous intelligence and cultural infiltration that threatens the very foundations of the state, while tarnishing its reputation and eroding its credibility among the peoples of the region and with free voices around the world.

“From this perspective,” Ouihmane continued, “the choice to end normalization is no longer a political or ideological stance, but an urgent national necessity to protect Morocco from collapse.”

“Normalization today seeks to bring Morocco down, which is why our struggle as a people, with all our components, is to bring it down before it completes its project of bringing all of us down, our nation, our society and our state,” Ouihmane concluded.