The Moroccan Nationalist Movement and Its Attitude toward Jews and Zionism · 161struggle for independence and unity within Morocco, and the struggle
over Palestine, the “Land of Israel”—Jews versus Arabs, Zionists versus
Palestinians.^1
The advocates, leaders, and activists of the Moroccan Nationalist
Movement, as well as the people of the Istiqlal and members of the vari-
ous other parties and factions of the movement, were very involved in
the question of the political and social status of Moroccan Jewry. So, too,
was the monarchy. Sultan Muḥammad Ben-Yussuf, who became King
Muḥammad V in 1957, and the people of the makhzan, the sultan’s senior
clerks, discussed this issue on various occasions. From the time of the
Arab conquest of the Maghrib until the twentieth century, the Jews lived
under dhimmi status, which means under the protection of the Muslim
rule.^2 The changes that Morocco was undergoing in the twentieth cen-
tury, generated by the end of the French Protectorate and the beginning
of Morocco’s renewed independence, led to changes in the status of the
Jews—changes that threatened both the old order and local traditions.^3
The Arab-Israeli conflict and the struggle over Palestine, which was
important to Jews as well as Nationalists, greatly complicated the situ-
ation. In this matter Moroccan Nationalists had an almost unified po-
sition, which was consolidated at the very outset of the struggle: they
supported the Palestinian Arabs, both morally and in practice. This sup-
port derived from their religious identification and their attachment to
Holy Jerusalem (al-Quds) and El-Aqsa, and their identification with any
and every Arab struggle for independence, wherever it existed. Arabs in
general, and Moroccans in particular, were inclined to equate the Jewish
and Zionist identities, especially following the establishment of the state
of Israel. The Moroccan Nationalists now viewed the Jewish community
in Morocco as an enemy-related factor, a perception that led to tensions
between Muslims and Jews in Morocco and created yet another change
in the traditional social and political composition in the country.^4
In order to understand these transformations, I will examine three
components more closely:
a. the status of the Jewish communities and the upheavals they un-
derwent in the second half of the twentieth century;
b. the influence of the Zionists and the establishment of the state of
Israel on the relationship between the Muslims and the Jews of
Morocco;