The Moroccan government has signed a contract with the state-owned company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for the purchase of a new-generation spy satellite Ofek-13 for an amount of at least 1 billion dollars (about 925 million euros), according to reports on Wednesday by Israeli and Moroccan media, and according to a communication from the seller to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The Israeli economic information daily Calcalist The report reveals that IAI’s CEO, former Defense Minister Amir Peretz, of Moroccan origin, has secretly traveled to Rabat in recent days to sign the agreement, which involves the delivery within five years of the new intelligence satellite. The announcement of the arms sale comes amid a wave of popular protests against the war in Gaza called by Islamist and left-wing Moroccan organizations, and which have spread to university campuses, where students were called to attend exams wearing their passports. kufiyathe traditional Palestinian headscarf.
Following the normalisation of bilateral relations in 2020, within the framework of the so-called Abraham Accords sponsored by the United States between the Jewish state and five Arab countries, the governments of Israel and Rabat signed in 2021 a military and security cooperation agreement unprecedented in other Muslim nations. In exchange for endorsing the rapprochement between its two strategic allies at both ends of the Mediterranean, Washington agreed to recognise Morocco’s sovereignty over the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, a territory still awaiting decolonisation, according to the UN, to give a boost to Rabat’s diplomatic position.
The latest version of the Ofek spy satellite, which Israel launched into orbit in March, uses the Opsat system to detect 300 people and objects with a resolution of less than 50 centimetres, compared to its current Pleiades Mohamed VI A and Mohamed VI B observation satellites, in service since 2017 and 2018 respectively, built by the French groups Thalis and Airbus for around 500 million euros, and whose maximum detection capacity is limited to just under one metre. The Ofek-13 integrates a ground-based radar tracking system.
An Israeli diplomat stationed in Rabat has been quoted by the digital portal The 360without being identified, to assure that, “despite the war against Hamas, there are sectors such as water management and agriculture, and defense in which bilateral cooperation has never been interrupted.” “The agreement on global threats, whether civil or military, should not be seen from the angle of a conflict, and is due to the management of shared interests,” said the same source. The share price of the company IAI on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has increased after having notified, according to the daily Calcalist, the relevant fact “of the entry into force of a contract with a party whose name has not been disclosed.” The Israeli security services revealed to the Hebrew press that the country in question is Morocco, and that it also acquired from IAI batteries for the advanced Barak 8 anti-aircraft defense system in a mega-contract worth around 500 million dollars that was also signed by Amir Peretz.
Internal contradiction
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Morocco is experiencing an internal contradiction over its military alliance with Israel while more than 38,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have lost their lives in the war in Gaza. The revelation in the local press that an Israeli warship had stopped at the port of Tangier Med in early June sparked accusations of “participation in genocide” by the Moroccan Front for the Support of Palestine and Against Normalisation. [con el Estado judío]which brings together around twenty left-wing parties, unions and associations and periodically calls for protests in dozens of cities. This organisation then regretted that the authorities in Rabat had remained silent on the issue, without following the example of the Spanish government last May, which prohibited the port of Cartagena of a Danish-flagged merchant ship from India loaded with 27 tons of explosives bound for Israel. The Israeli warship turned off its geolocation transponder before arriving at Tanger Med.
This year, university students have been mobilised in Morocco, following the wake of protests on American and European campuses against the war in Gaza. There have been numerous demonstrations and gatherings in the major centres of Rabat, Casablanca and Tangier, but also on new elite campuses such as the Polytechnic Mohammed VI in Benguerir (south), where the crown prince Moulay Hassan is studying. This university has collaboration agreements with eight Israeli centres, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion in Haifa, which the students are demanding be cancelled in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza who are suffering the consequences of nine months of large-scale war.
Several Islamist militants have already received prison sentences for questioning ties between Morocco and the Jewish state on social media. The latest Arab Opinion Barometer, published in June, found that Moroccan support for normalising relations with Israel had fallen to 13% from 31% two years ago. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed described the Gaza war as a “massacre” or “genocide”.
Moroccan diplomacy regularly issues statements condemning Israel for its attacks on civilians in Gaza, reiterating its official position in favour of a two-state solution and expressly supporting ceasefire proposals sponsored by the UN Security Council and the White House. Last summer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to the king announcing the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara, following in the footsteps of former President Donald Trump in 2020.
The Moroccan government approved last month at a Council of Ministers chaired by Mohammed VI the creation of two military industrial zones that will focus on the development of investments linked to defense and security, including the production of weapons and ammunition. The Israeli company Bluebird Aerosystems announced on April 13 the opening of a drone factory in Morocco, which will come into service in the near future, without specifying its location. A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) indicates that between 2019 and 2023 Israel was the third largest arms exporter to Morocco, after the United States and France, with 11% of its military imports.
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