LATEST UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2000

During the last decade, King Hassan II (1962-98) had initiated certain political reforms, including the introduction of parliamentary elections in 1993. He failed, however, to entice the legal opposition parties to form a government in which power would be rotated among major political groupings. In the relatively short space of time since his succession, his son King Mohammed VI has won widespread support for his clear commitment to political and economic liberalization. He has also sought to improve Morocco's human rights record by releasing over 10,000 political prisoners and allowing a number of high-profile political opponents to return from exile.

Although the small Jewish community in Morocco seemed relatively secure during the reign of King Hassan, concern was expressed about the possibility of change after his demise. The succession of King Mohammed, however, has not brought any substantive change to the situation of Moroccan Jewry.

Since the mid-1990s Morocco has witnessed an increase of antisemitic expressions in the opposition media and an apparently growing tolerance of Holocaust denial. Other factors that may undermine the security of Moroccan Jews in future include the stalemate in the Middle East peace process, the growing socio-economic difficulties of certain sectors of the Moroccan population, a concomitant rise of militant Islamism and a deterioration of the situation in neighbouring Algeria.

Demographic data

Total population: 29.7 million
Jewish population: 6,000

Political data

Political system: constitutional monarchy; a referendum in September 1996 approved the establishment of a bicameral parliament with an entirely elected lower chamber.
Capital: Rabat
Head of state: King Hassan II, Morocco's constitutional monarch and religious leader since 1962, died of a heart attack in July 1998. He was succeeded immediately by his elder son and heir, Crown Prince Sidi Mohammed who was crowned King Mohammed VI.
Government: In January 1998, after no party emerged from the November 1997 parliamentary elections with an overall majority, King Hassan II asked the leader of the Union socialiste des forces populaires (USFP, Socialist Union of Popular Forces) - the largest single party in the lower chamber - Abderrahmane Youssouffi, to form a coalition government; the centre-left coalition includes seven parties dominated by the USFP, the Rassemblement national des indépendants (RNI, National Rally of Independents) and the Istiqlal (IP, Independence Party).

Economic data

GDP 1998: US$36 billion (World Bank)

GDP growth 1998: 6.5 per cent (World Bank)

Inflation: 5 per cent

Unemployment: 20 per cent

The Jewish community of Morocco, which dates back more than 2,000 years, has experienced various waves of both tolerance and discrimination. The worst outbreaks of antisemitic violence occurred during the Middle Ages, when Jews were massacred in Fez in 1033 and in Marrakech in 1232. Following the establishment of the French protectorate in 1912, Jews began to enjoy greater equality.

Under the war-time Vichy regime Jews suffered discrimination but managed to avoid deportation to the death camps, thanks largely to the efforts of King Mohammed V. By 1948 there were some 270,000 Jews in Morocco but thereafter the population decreased rapidly.

Following the establishment of the state of Israel there were numerous attacks on Jewish individuals and premises. In June 1953 forty-three Jews were murdered, and violence persisted until Morocco gained independence in 1956. Jews were granted full suffrage and complete freedom of movement but emigration was restricted (although thousands of Jews continued to leave for Israel clandestinely). After the 1967 Six-Day War many middle-class Jews emigrated because of worsening conditions, including a virulent antisemitic and anti-Israel press campaign that increased in tandem with the popularity of the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt.

The Jewish community maintained good relations with King Hassan II, as indicated by his appointment of a Jew, André Azoulay, as chief adviser on economic affairs.

The Amazighs (Berbers) face cultural marginalization despite constituting a majority of the population, and continue to press the government for cultural and linguistic recognition, including the teaching of Amazigh languages in schools. A 1995 ruling by King Hassan II, authorizing the necessary curricular changes, has yet to be implemented.

  No governmental response has been forthcoming following a 1996 petition by Amazigh organizations asking that their language be recognized as an official language; they claimed that the government refused to register the births of children with Amazigh names, discouraged the public display of the Amazigh language, limited the activities of communal organizations and continued to Arabize the Amazigh names of towns, villages and landmarks. In April 1998 Prime Minister Youssoufi acknowledged that Amazigh culture was an integral part of Moroccan identity in speech in parliament.

Islamist groupings
The Moroccan authorities exhibit a certain level of tolerance towards most Islamist organizations but have prohibited a number of radical groups that dominate student unions on the main university campuses. In 1999 Sheikh Abdessalam Yassin, leader of the largest and most radical Islamist organization, Adl wal Ihasan (Justice and Charity), marked ten years under house arrest. Nonetheless, his publications and recordings of his teachings are openly sold and distributed. Some Islamist groups in Morocco have expressed antisemitic sentiments by accusing the king, for example, of selling the country to the Jews.

Attacks against Jewish individuals or property in Morocco are relatively uncommon but occasional incidents do arouse concern.

In August 1998 the Otsar Hatorah synagogue in Casablanca was desecrated and robbed.

Negative attitudes towards Jews at grassroots level were displayed during a football match between the national teams of Morocco and Egypt in June 1998. Following heated exchanges of insults and rude gestures, Moroccan spectators sought to antagonize the Egyptians by shouting 'Jews, Jews!' at them.

Holocaust denial is rare, but not entirely unknown, in the official Moroccan media. On 28 February 1998, for example, the semi-official daily Le Matin, which generally serves as the palace mouthpiece, cast doubt on the fact of the Holocaust by asserting that Jewish claims for compensation were 'historical and morally deceitful'.

Support for the French Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy (see France) has been frequently expressed among the professional and intellectual elites in Morocco. (Garaudy visited Morocco in 1996 during his Middle Eastern tour to launch the Arabic version of his latest book 'The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics'. The visit received widespread attention in the local press but Garaudy was banned by King Hassan from appearing at academic institutions and only permitted to lecture to private audiences.) Garaudy's trial in France, which opened in January 1998, gave rise to many expressions of support in Morocco. On 16 January 1998 the official news agency MAP published an item entitled 'A Moroccan lawyer comes to the rescue of Roger Garaudy'. The article reported that Khalid Sufiyani, president of the Moroccan Association for Support of the Palestinian Struggle, together with an Egyptian lawyer, were among those defending Garaudy. On the same day MAP also announced that the Rabat-based Islamic Education, Science and Culture Organization and the National Council for Arab Culture in Morocco had declared their support for Garaudy. Al-Alam, the newspaper of the Istiqlal party, announced in February 1998 that the Chamber of Advocates in Tangiers had also joined the campaign in support of Garaudy.

In keeping with the general tolerance exhibited towards Jews in Morocco, the official Moroccan media rarely permits the expression of antisemitic statements.

  On 26 April 1999, a documentary on the 2M television channel, claiming to explore the source of the Palestinian problem, defined the Dreyfus affair (see France) as 'a Jewish conspiracy for Zionist propaganda'. The tone of the programme did, however, provoke some criticism in the left-wing press (see Countering antisemitism).

  Opposition movements, including the small but influential Islamist groups, are often critical of the official policy towards Jews. On 5 November 1997, for example, al-Ittihad al-Ishtraki, the organ of the USFP, published an article by Abd al-Hai Hassan al-Amrani that accused the Jews of a fanaticism that leads the world into disasters and atrocities. The article referred to 'Talmudic and racist legends' and to the blindness and corruption of Judaism.

Tensions between Morocco and Israel occasionally give rise to expressions of antisemitism in the Moroccan media. These often take the form of conspiracy theories. In 23 October 1999, for example, the weekly al-Hayat al-Yomiyah alleged that Moroccan tomato crops had been infected with a pesticide-resistant virus shortly after the 1996 visit of a group of Israeli experts who were conducting experiments on poisons.

The Moroccan government provides funds for a number of Jewish public schools, and has funded several efforts to study the cultural, artistic, literary and scientific heritage of the Moroccan Jewish community. During his reign, King Hassan II acted as patron to a number of international interfaith meetings. In December 1997 the London-based Maimonides Foundation sponsored and organized an international symposium for Jewish and Muslim religious and lay leaders that was held at al-Akhwayn University in Ifrane. The symposium, entitled 'The "other" in the literature of East and West' was co-sponsored by the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London and the University of Tel Aviv.

  The Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, was invited to participate with Christian and Muslim leaders in an international conference in Morocco in February 1998, a follow-up to a conference held in Barcelona in 1995.

  In May 1998, King Hassan II organized the first meeting of the World Union of Moroccan Jews in Marrakech.

King Mohammed VI, Hassan II's successor, has maintained as his adviser on economic affairs, André Azoulay, a Moroccan Jew. Sparked by the flow of Jewish and Israeli tourists to Morocco in recent years, the government supported the renovation of the Even Danan synagogue in Mellah, the former Jewish quarter of Fez. The building was dedicated in February 1999, in the presence of the crown prince, leaders of the Moroccan Jewish community, as well as politicians, military and police officers. Jewish scholars from various countries also attended an international seminar in Fez, entitled, 'The cultural heritage of Moroccan Jewry'.

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