The first direct commercial flight between Israel and Morocco took off from Tel Aviv on Tuesday, in a symbolic trip after the countries reached a US-brokered deal to normalise ties.
The El Al flight with US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner and Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben Shabbat on board was headed to Rabat, where Moroccan and Israeli officials were due to sign a series of agreements.
The trip aims to showcase the achievements of the Trump administration in Middle East diplomacy, weeks before Trump is replaced at the White House by President-elect Joe Biden.
Morocco became the third Arab state this year, after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to normalise ties with Israel under US-brokered deals, while Sudan has pledged to follow suit.
Speaking at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport before departure, Kushner stressed that the UAE-Israel deal had already created commercial opportunities for both countries.
“My hope is that this flight today to Morocco will create the same amount of momentum,” between Morocco and Israel, he said.
Western Sahara
As part of the Morocco-Israel deal, Trump fulfilled a decades-old goal of Morocco by backing its contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.
The move infuriated the Algerian-backed pro-independence Polisario Front, which controls about one fifth of the desert territory that was once a Spanish colony.
Negotiations leading to Morocco’s resumption of ties with Israel included an agreement to open a US consulate in Western Sahara, and US investment pledges which Moroccan media described as “colossal”.
At the same time Israel and Morocco are due to reopen diplomatic offices and activate economic cooperation between them.
Morocco closed its liaison office in Tel Aviv in 2000, at the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
King Mohammed VI has said Morocco will remain an advocate for the Palestinians.
But the Palestinians — like the Polisario — have cried foul and condemned the normalisation announcement between Rabat and the Jewish state.
‘Shared history’
Morocco has sought to temper the anger by insisting that relations with Israel are not new.
“The new agreement is merely the formalisation of a de facto partnership between Morocco and Israel dating back 60 years,” said Moroccan media boss Ahmed Charai.
In a commentary this month in the Jerusalem Post, he said the two countries had a “shared history”, adding that he was “overcome with pride and gratitude” when the deal was announced.
