Some Moroccan politicians do have brains and guts to approach Israel normally.
The Mayor of Marrakesh for instance. He signed a trilateral accord with Marseille (Fr.) and Haifa in Israel. He didn’t sign it directly with Haifa though. Everything went through Marseille, which is the sister-city of both Haifa and Marrakech.
But the mayor did go on a picture with Haifa’s mayor:
(Moroccan mayor is on the right, the Israeli one on the left)
The accord is nothing special really, it “provides for tourism training for students from Marrakesh and Haifa in Marseille”.
But it’s still remarkable.
But ofcourse, Morocco also has its share of Israel-haters and religious wackos. The local PJD threatened the mayor with an “intifada” against this scandalous decision. How dare they normalize ties with a zionist city! Bad mayor, bad mayor!
(via MEMRI)
February 28, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I just invited a dutch moroccan on m.nl to join me for dinner in israel – his response was that he’d never put foot in ‘that country’
That’s OK, but the thing is : he’s a nice guy
http://www.marokko.nl/forums/showthread.php?t=1242737&page=425
March 1, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Maybe he needs a little bit more convincing!
(or maybe he’s just haggling and waits for you to offer him a free plane-ticket as well. You never know:P)
March 1, 2007 at 11:52 pm
That’s not what I meant…
Nice = nice discussions, friendly.
That disappears when the conversation comes to Israel – it then becomes radical extremist, and re-appears when the subject is changed *_*
March 2, 2007 at 12:03 am
haha oops, sorry.
Me and my weird mind.
But I still think that he should go to Israel, maybe by force.
Well ok, not force.
But lately I was thinking of why the dutch government doesn’t take this hatred/extremism serious.
I mean, we do take Moroccan youngsters on trips to Africa, Morocco etc to see everything for themselves.
Why not take them to Israel, to experience everything firsthand?
March 2, 2007 at 8:46 am
Hahahaha… I like your idea
Without disrespect but that might prove more effective in order to reach the conclusion that we’re not walking war-machines in civil clothes than trips to auschwitz orso (the past vs. the future issue).