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Speaker of the Israeli parliament Amir Ohana is set to arrive on Wednesday to Morocco on the first such visit to the country, reflecting deepening ties between the two states that normalized relations in 2020.
Ohana is scheduled to meet with his Moroccan counterpart, Rashid Talbi al-Alami, the Israel-Morocco parliamentary friendship group and other Moroccan lawmakers. Both parliament speakers will sign a memorandum of understanding aimed at developing bilateral parliamentary cooperation. Ohana will also meet with leaders of the local Jewish community.
The Moroccan-Israeli Friendship Association was formed last month. The website of the Moroccan parliament shows seven members in that group from both sides of the political aisle — though the Islamist Party of Justice and Development refused to join the new association. Nor-Ddin Elhrouchi of the ruling Constitutional Democratic Social Group is listed as the association's president. Ohana's invitation was extended by his Moroccan counterpart after the group was formed. A similar friendship group was formed in the Israeli parliament in 2021.
A statement issued by Ohana's office said, "How appropriate that of all (Muslim) countries, the Kingdom of Morocco is the first to invite the head of the State of Israel’s legislature, who also happens to be of Moroccan descent, for an official visit to its parliament.”
The Knesset speaker himself was born in the Israeli town of Beersheba, but both of his parents are of Moroccan origins. His mother was born not far from Fes, and his father was born in Marrakesh. Both of them immigrated to Israel in the 1950s. A 2016 report by Moroccan authorities suggested that Israel was the second-largest Moroccan diaspora in the world after France, with some 800,000 people of Moroccan origins.
Israel and Morocco had established diplomatic ties in 1995 following the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians, but ties were severed in 2000 following the outbreak of the second intifada. In 2022, diplomatic ties were restored as part of the US-mediated Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
The move was seen as part of a deal reached with the Trump administration: The United States agreed to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, and Rabat agreed to normalize ties with Jerusalem. That being said, bilateral ties between Israel and Morocco have expanded significantly since the accords in many domains.
Diplomatic tensions were seen between the two countries earlier this year over violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Still, bilateral trade has been growing steadily since 2020, increasing by a third in 2022, to a total of $180 million. Several Israeli ministers have visited Morocco since 2020, including the historic visit of then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz in Rabat in November 2021, where he signed a landmark military cooperation agreement with Morocco — the first such agreement between Israel and an Arab country.
In another sign of deepening relations, an Israeli military delegation from the Golani Brigade's elite unit on Sunday joined the African Lion 2023 international military exercise in Morocco. It was the first time the Israeli military participated in the drill, which brought together soldiers from Africa, the United States and Europe.
