Risks of Israeli Students in Moroccan Universities: Opening Doors or Breaching Security?

While Tangier, a city in northern Morocco, firmly embodies solidarity with Gaza, Abdelmalek Essaadi University is egregiously undermining this commitment by continuing its normalization with the Israeli entity.

The university recently announced that students holding Israeli citizenship are eligible to register for the master's program for the academic year 2024-25. 

This decision has ignited widespread controversy among students, faculty, and organizations advocating for the Palestinian cause in Morocco, all of whom have expressed vehement opposition and strong condemnation of this initiative.

In response, the Tangier and Tetouan branches of the National Union of Moroccan Students organized a protest on September 25, 2024, in front of the university presidency. 

During this demonstration, students articulated their rejection of all forms of academic normalization while reaffirming their commitment to the Palestinian cause.

Unaccepted!

The Tetouan and Tangier branches of the National Union of Moroccan Students declared that this action occurs in complete disregard for the sentiments of Moroccan students, who have steadfastly demonstrated their constant support to the Palestinian people.

In a statement, students emphasized that the university's decision comes “at a sensitive time when Moroccans feel pain and bitterness due to the genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people by the Zionist enemy [‘Israel’], employing the worst forms of persecution, torture, and killing.”

They asserted that "this action cannot be dismissed as ordinary or incidental; instead, it represents a systematic and deliberate continuation of academic normalization with an entity that flagrantly violates all international treaties and laws. It is a treacherous betrayal of the Palestinian people, who courageously resist the most brutal forms of occupation and oppression.”

Moreover, according to the students, the academic normalization contradicts the deeply entrenched principles of Moroccan students’ long-standing support for the Palestinian cause, which has been fundamental to the history of the National Union of Moroccan Students throughout Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

The union strongly condemned this decision and the degradation to which Abdelmalek Essaadi University has succumbed by accepting academic normalization.

They view this step as a clear provocation to the sentiments of students, faculty, and all constituents of the Moroccan academic community.

The students affirmed their unyielding support for the Palestinian people from within the university's spaces, employing various creative and protest forms. 

They called upon Moroccan students and all active forces in society to unite against all forms of academic normalization and to rally around actions that support the Palestinian cause while rejecting Israeli infiltration into Moroccan universities.

The Tangier and Tetouan branches of the Students’ Renewal Organization also issued a statement expressing their astonishment and strong condemnation of this normalization step that includes Israeli citizenship in the master's registration program for 2024-25.

They noted that this normalization step occurs while the Israeli Occupation continues its brutal assault against the unarmed populations in Gaza and the West Bank, supported by the global imperialist forces of the United States, amid the peaceful struggles waged by students and faculty across the university spectrum.

They expressed their expectation that the administration of Abdelmalek Essaadi University would take rational and humanitarian measures, primarily by severing ties with all forms of academic normalization, rather than the opposite.

They announced their intention to escalate resistance against this provocative normalization step, both for professors and students, and their absolute and unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as all oppressed peoples globally.

Multiple Risks

In response to the university's decision, Mustafa Alawi, president of the Students’ Renewal Organization, asserted that academic normalization with “Israel” is completely unacceptable, warning of its multiple risks.

Alawi explained to Al-Estiklal that universities typically announce the nationalities eligible for study at the start of each academic year. 

This year, the university expanded its list of eligible students to include the Israeli Occupation’s citizens for registration in its faculties.

He pointed out that this step has only been taken by Abdelmalek Essaadi University in Tangier and Chouaib Doukkali University in el-Jadida.

Alawi stated that his organization has expressed its total rejection of this decision and has communicated with the Moroccan Observatory for Anti-Normalization to inform them of the decision made and the associated risks, particularly since the university maintains a partnership with a Zionist institution.

This is an opportunity to renew their condemnation of the university's decision, both in its symbolic and political dimensions and to assert that students and professors will not allow this to happen in their university, as they firmly believe in the absolute right of the Palestinian people and reject occupation and its associated crimes, according to Alawi.  

On the other hand, Alawi ruled out the likelihood of Israeli students registering at Abdelmalek Essaadi University, nor would Israeli families be inclined to do so, considering the security implications they might face, especially given that Moroccan society at large, and students in particular, firmly reject Israeli Zionists and normalization.

Aziz Hanaoui, Secretary-General of the Moroccan Observatory for Anti-Normalization, characterized the university's actions as "extremely dangerous" and "one of the most severe forms of normalization."

Hanaoui cautioned Al-Estiklal that allowing Israeli students to enter Moroccan universities could facilitate espionage and the theft of scientific research.

"It also allows for infiltration of the student body and recruitment of researchers to serve an agenda of penetrating the university and industrial, economic, and cultural sectors," he further noted.

The anti-normalization activist described this initiative as part of broader official normalization efforts "imposed despotically against the popular will that rejects it."

He highlighted that students and professors at Abdelmalek Essaadi University had signed petitions against normalization just months ago, yet the university administration continues to defy its students and faculty.

Aroua Eldibouni, a doctoral student and member of the National Committee of the National Union of Moroccan Students, expressed her concerns regarding the risks associated with academic normalization with the occupation.

In a statement to Morocco World News on September 26, 2024, Eldibouni asserted that the decision "goes against the will of students and the public to reject normalization and oppose it in all its forms."

She emphasized that it underscores "the extent to which Zionist influence has permeated these Moroccan universities" in light of the continuing Israeli military aggression on Gaza.

Eldibouni noted that several Moroccan universities, including the Faculty of Arts at Hassan II University in Casablanca and the Faculty of Science at Shuaib Doukali University in El Jadida, have permitted Israeli students to complete master's programs in Morocco after graduating from universities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

She affirmed that the National Union of Moroccan Students will persist in combating all forms of academic normalization until the normalization agreement is rescinded.

"We, the Moroccan students, firmly reject this reckless choice made by these Moroccan universities and hold them entirely accountable,” Eldibouni concluded.

Thousands of Signatures

In response to the atrocities faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza, 600 faculty members and administrative staff at Abdelmalek Essaadi University in Tetouan submitted a petition to the university president, demanding the cancellation of a partnership agreement established with the Israeli University of Haifa.

According to Akhbarona, a local media organization, the signatories demanded "the cancellation of the agreement signed with the University of Haifa and the cessation of all forms of normalization with the occupation entity and all university institutions affiliated with it."

"Our initiative comes as a step of solidarity with the Palestinian people against the crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity that they have been subjected to for more than eight months,” as per the petitioners.

“The crimes of the [Israeli] Occupation forces deliberately and systematically targeted all higher education institutions in which university presidents, deans, professors, and students were martyred.”

The president of Abdelmalek Essaadi University welcomed a delegation of 12 faculty members and staff to receive a petition demanding the cancellation of the university's partnership with Israeli institutions. 

He assured the delegation that the petition would be placed on the agenda for the next university council meeting.

Notably, the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Tangier, part of the university, previously celebrated the signing of a cooperation agreement with Haifa University on September 12, 2022, intended for researcher and student exchanges. 

In July 2024, thousands of Moroccan students rallied for the annulment of academic normalization agreements with Israel, coinciding with the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

This movement was encapsulated in a statement from the National Union of Moroccan Students, detailing a petition addressed to Abdellatif Miraoui, the Moroccan Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research, and Innovation. 

The petition garnered over 3,000 initial signatures, calling for the immediate withdrawal of all normalization agreements with what it termed the "Zionist entity."

Moroccan students expressed profound dissatisfaction with the rapid normalization processes occurring in several universities before October 7, 2023, arguing that these agreements were made against the will of the academic community. 

In solidarity, the Students' Cooperation for Palestine and the Moroccan Front to Support Palestine and Oppose Normalization declared October as a month of academic anti-normalization in Morocco.

They issued a joint statement in early October 2024, urging participation in a national march in Rabat on October 6, 2024, to commemorate the first anniversary of the “al-Aqsa tsunami.” 

This initiative highlighted October as a pivotal moment to continue opposing academic normalization and advocate for a boycott of the Israeli state.

In June 2024, the BDS movement in Morocco documented various student-led initiatives aimed at dismantling partnerships between Moroccan academic institutions and their Israeli counterparts. 

BDS Morocco identified several universities with existing agreements, including the International University of Rabat and the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez.

Notably, nearly 1,300 students and graduates from Mohammed VI University of Poly-disciplinary Studies signed a letter demanding the severance of ties with Israeli partners.

The movement urged Moroccan academics and higher education unions to support the efforts of students and organizations in their struggle against normalization.

“By intensifying pressure from students and academics opposing complicity with the occupying universities, all relationships between Moroccan universities and the academic institutions serving the occupying army will come to an end. Consequently, the memorandum of understanding between the Moroccan Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research, and Innovation and the Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology will be revoked,” as stated by BDS.