RABAT, Feb 22 (NNN-MAP) – Thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Morocco and Tunisia, to protest against a new US Middle East peace plan which the Palestinians say favours Israel.
Carrying Palestinian flags, demonstrators, including local politicians and trade unionists, marched in Rabat chanting, “Long live Palestine.”
They called for a boycott of American products, denounced the United States as “enemies of peace” and chanted, “Palestine is not for sale.”
The demonstrators, who wore red-black-green-white scarves, in the colours of the Palestinian standard, burned an Israeli flag and spoke against any attempt by Morocco “to normalise” ties with the Jewish state.
Morocco has quiet relations with Israel, but no formal diplomatic ties.
Elsewhere in North Africa, hundreds of Tunisians also protested against the US peace plan, in the eastern city of Sfax. Tunisia’s powerful UGTT labour union, called the proposal an “accord of shame.”
Last month, US President Donald Trump unveiled his Middle East plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which the Palestinians have rejected as biased in favour of the Jewish state.
Under the plan, Israel would retain control of the disputed city of Jerusalem as its “undivided capital,” and annex 30 percent of the West Bank, including all the settlements, with the Palestinians getting some land in southern Israel as compensation. Palestinians, however, want East Jerusalem to be the capital, including the Old City. The plan provides for a demilitarised Palestinian state with limited sovereignty, under overall Israeli security control, if the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state and disarm Hamas.
The plan has also been rejected by the Arab League, the African Union, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation — three bodies in which Morocco is a prominent member.
Morocco’s position is to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
