The Obama Administration Snubs Another Arab Ally

Ahmed Charai

Global Governance, Morocco

Despite major political gains, Morocco is targeted by Foggy Bottom.

The remarkable video below shows a group of Moroccan Jews from Israel singing and dancing in front of police checkpoints at the King Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, upon their arrival from Jerusalem. They had come to make a religious pilgrimage in the region of Ouarzazate. The comfort level of a group of Jews in religious attire in an Arab country, literally dancing through the metal detector, is both moving and telling. Morocco has enshrined the rights of Jews into its constitution. Moroccan Jews of the world, including in Israel, routinely express a feeling of deep attachment to their country of origin.

The merits of the kingdom's constitution, ratified overwhelmingly by the population in a 2011 referendum, go beyond the country's Jewish community. While consecrating the popular sovereignty of the king, it also transfers most ministerial responsibilities to an elected Chief of a Government. It affirms the sanctity of human rights, equality of all before the law, and freedom of expression. It also consecrates the virtue of preserving the environment, a responsibility to be shared by the monarchy, the state, and the population.

With respect to human rights and the equality of Moroccan citizens, the constitution is not merely aspirational: It reflects a social reality, painstakingly nurtured by the present king since he took the throne in 1999. Among his first dramatic moves was to set in motion a process of equity and reconciliation, whereby the suffering of elements of the population at the hands of the security services in prior decades was acknowledged and redressed. The Moroccan experience of transitional justice has become a model which other countries in Africa and the Middle East have begun to apply to their own societies.