Hundreds of Moroccan students demand severing ties with Israeli universities

Hundreds of Moroccan students and graduates at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in the central city of Ben Guerir signed a petition on Wednesday to demand the severing of partnership agreements with eight Israeli universities and institutes.

The petition, signed by 1,256 individuals, called on the university administration to “sever ties with Israeli partners involved in war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people,” according to their statement.

The signatories said that they were invited to a dialogue and held a meeting with a university representative, who indicated that the university refuses to cut ties with its Israeli partners.

“Our university has not only engaged in normalization but has also been a leader in establishing partnerships and hosting high-level delegations,” said the statement.

“The university created a high-ranking position dedicated to handling Israeli partnerships, which is an act of absurdity and provocation."

The statement said the partnerships involve eight Israeli universities and higher education institutions, which include nearly all the universities in Israel.

The partnerships in question are with Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, Western Galilee Academic College, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Reichman University, and Sapir Academic College, according to the statement.

Morocco was the fourth Arab country to agree to normalize ties with Israel in 2020 after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

More than 37,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 86,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.