Moroccan activists to ‘block’ Israeli drone factories
Moroccan anti-normalization activists vow to protest Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems’ planned presence in the country, as military ties between Tel Aviv and Rabat intensify despite public opposition
The company has sites in the US, Israel and the UK. In 2021, it established a subsidiary in the UAE. (Getty)
Moroccan anti-normalisation activists have vowed to protest plans to establish a presence for Israeli arms manufacturers in their country as military tires between Tel Aviv and Rabat reaches unprecedented levels of cooperation despite public opposition.
This comes in the wake of announcements by Israeli officials that controversial Israeli arms company, Elbit Systems, is set to open two plants in the kingdom.
On Friday, Shai Cohen, the head of the Israeli Liaison Office in Morocco, announced the plans in a press conference on the future projects the two states are set to launch three years into their public normalization.
One of the two sites will open in Casablanca. No further details were revealed about the budget of the first Elbit site in North Africa.
The Moroccan Front against Normalization, a group of pro-Palestine activists established in 2021, is preparing to take to the streets in the coming days to protest the Elbit project and decry the “shameful Moroccan relationship with Israel,” according to a source in the group who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In December 2020, Morocco signed a normalization deal with Israel in exchange for the US recognition of Rabat’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
State media framed the deal at the time as a pragmatic diplomatic move Rabat took to lobby more support for its control over the disputed territory – a key national case in the North African Kingdom.
A year later, Morocco and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding regarding military and security cooperation. Arms sales and