A year after signing a normalization agreement with Morocco, Israel will host senior academics from the North African country Sunday for a conference on the Hebrew heritage's influence on the kingdom.
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The event will take place at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, central Israel. Spearheaded by BIU's Dahan Center for Culture, Society and Education in the Sephardic Heritage, it will shed light on the unofficial political, cultural, and social ties that characterized the two countries long before the Abraham Accords.
Months in the making, the conference aims to reveal the uniqueness of Hebrew culture and law in Morocco and allow researchers to explore the complex pendulum of relations between Morocco and its Jewish population, ranging from difficult times to the golden age of Moroccan Jewry in the 20th century in terms of law and rabbinical works.
"In contrast to the cold peace [agreements] between us and Egypt and Jordan, with the average Egyptian and Jordanian being hostile to Israel, in the case of Morocco, the relations between authorities are warm, especially between citizens," Director of the Dahan Center Shimon Ohayon said. "We are proud to hold a conference in which researchers from Morocco and Israel participate. When it comes to signing a peace agreement with Morocco, it was a natural step."
Professor Hassan Oulhaj from the International University of Rabat, who arrived in Israel for the conference last week, said he was "very happy to be here. All these years there were unofficial ties with Israel, but now there is no reason not to move forward. The decision about the normalization came from the king himself, and everyone is happy about it. Only the extreme Left and radical Islamists are among the opponents.
"Judaism and Jews in Morocco have a long history. Ties between Muslims, Berbers, and the Jews are very important to the character of Morocco," he said, expressing hope for many more such future collaborations between Jerusalem and Rabat.
Israel and Morocco signed a peace treaty on Dec. 22, 2020.
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