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600 Moroccan academics call for severance of ties with Israeli Haifa University

Friday, 31 May 2024 9:49 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 31 May 2024 9:49 AM ]

In this file picture, people participate in a demonstration in Morocco in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid the unrelenting Israeli military onslaught against the besieged coastal territory. (Photo by Anadolu news agency)

Hundreds of academics in Morocco have called for severance of ties with the University of Haifa, as the Israeli military presses ahead with its bloody ground and air strikes against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Some 600 professors, faculty members and administrative staff of Abdelmalek Essaâdi University in the northern Moroccan city of Tétouan have signed a petition and sent it to the president of the university, demanding the cancellation of the cooperation agreement between the two centers.

The signatories of the petition stated that they want the agreement signed between their university and the University of Haifa to be nullified, calling for an end to any cooperation and normalization of relations with Israel and all academic institutions affiliated with the occupying regime.

The academics noted in the petition that their actions and initiatives are in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians amid the Israeli crimes against humanity, especially Gaza residents who have been subjected to a genocidal war for more than eight months.

“The Israeli regime's military has deliberately and purposefully targeted all higher education institutions in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestinian lands. University presidents, trustees, professors and students have been martyred as a result of these crimes,” part of the petition read.

Back in September 2022, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University of Morocco and the Israeli University of Haifa signed an agreement, which includes scientific and educational cooperation.

Read more:

Thousands of Moroccans urge government to cut ties with Israel over Gaza onslaught

Over the past days, many cities across Morocco, including the capital Rabat, have witnessed demonstrations in support of the Gaza people.

The participants have demanded the breakup of relations between Morocco and the Tel Aviv regime, cessation of Israeli crimes, and unhindered entry of humanitarian aid convoys into the Gaza Strip.

Morocco, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan, signed US-brokered normalization agreements with the Israeli regime in 2020, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians who slammed the deals as “a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people.”

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories.

The regime has also been enforcing a near-total siege on the coastal territory, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle.

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