Morocco's former prime minister Saadeddine El-Othmani defended his decision to sign the normalisation agreement with Israel, despite mounting domestic and international criticism amid Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Speaking to local media on 13 December, El-Othmani, a senior figure in the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), acknowledged the contentious nature of the agreement, he signed in December 2020 under US auspices.
"There are many things you may dislike and disagree with, but circumstances and contexts arise that force one to change their stance on them", he told The Voice media.
The deal, as part of the "Abraham Accords" and was brokered with then-President Donald Trump's adviser Jared Kushner and Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, saw Morocco normalise ties with Israel in exchange for US recognition of Rabat's sovereignty over Western Sahara. A promised American consulate in the disputed territory, however, never materialised under the Biden administration.
At the time, Rabat framed the agreement as a "patriotic diplomatic move" to strengthen its position against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front in the Western Sahara conflict.
Yet, the accord came at a steep political cost for the PJD, whose base viewed the decision as a betrayal of its core anti-normalisation ideology.
In 2022, El-Othmani said the decision was far from easy. He described the moment he shook hands with Israeli officials as "painful," attributing his actions to state pressure.
Now, working as a psychiatrist in Rabat and distancing himself from his party's politics, he argues the accord has borne fruit in Morocco's diplomatic efforts.
"The American recognition played a key role in opening the door for other Western states to side with Morocco [on the Western Sahara issue]," he said, citing close sources.
Normalisation and the fallout of PJD
The fallout for the PJD has been dramatic. The party, which rose to power in 2011 during Morocco's pro-reform protests, suffered a crushing defeat in the 2021 parliamentary elections, securing just 13 seats after a decade in power.
Following the loss, El-Othmani resigned, paving the way for the return of former populist leader Abdelilah Benkirane as party chief.
Since then, Benkirane has been outspoken in his criticism of his colleague's role in the deal. In October, he reaffirmed his anti-normalisation stance, calling the agreement "a mistake" and urging Othmani to apologise to the Moroccan people.
For his part, Othmani believes that despite the state's decision to normalise ties with Israel, there's still room for opposition. "We are the only Muslim state where protests against Israel didn't stop since the start of [the war in Gaza]", he told local media.
"There are few arrests compared to the number of protests," he argued.
TNA reached out to the PJD's leadership for comment on Othmani's recent statements, but no one was available by the time of publication.
Pro-Palestine protests in Morocco have intensified since Israel's war on Gaza began, with activists urging the revocation of the normalisation agreement.
Although Morocco has generally allowed public protests against Israel, authorities have, on several occasions, banned demonstrations near the French and US embassies and used force to disperse protests outside Carrefour stores, according to pro-Palestinian groups.
Several pro-Palestine activists have also faced court trials since last October.
On 10 December, a Moroccan court sentenced Ismail Lghazaoui, an activist in the BDS Morocco group, to one year in jail for calling for a blockade on the US embassy for its support of Israel amid its genocide in Gaza.
In April, Abdul Rahman Zankad was sentenced to five years in prison after posting on Facebook about Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and Morocco's 2020 decision to establish diplomatic ties with Israel. The court found him guilty of insulting a constitutional institution and incitement.
Another activist, Said Boukioud, was sentenced last November to three years in prison for insulting the king in a series of Facebook posts criticising normalisation.
Thirteen other activists are currently facing trial for attempting to blockade a Carrefour supermarket, a target of BDS campaigns for its links to Israeli companies operating in settlements.
The Moroccan Committee for the Support of Political Prisoners says these trials aim at "stifling freedom of expression and criminalising solidarity with Palestine."