#Morocco #Israel #hackerChrisColeman #MoroccanLeaks
The Kingdom of Morocco is ranked among Israel’s top five largest African clients.
Morocco, which presents itself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, actually maintains highly friendly relations with Israel. These relations stand in direct opposition to Palestinian interests. Once again, it is the hacker Chris Coleman—dubbed the « Moroccan Julian Assange »—who has made these revelations. He recently published a confidential letter on his Facebook wall, dated May 18, 2011, from Raphaël Barak, Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, addressed to his « friend » Youssef Amrani, the former Secretary General of the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The letter clearly demonstrates the existence of institutional ties between the Kingdom of Morocco and Israel. Beyond proving that Rabat opened its airspace to Israeli aircraft a long time ago, this missive confirms that cooperation between the two countries is, to say the least, very extensive.
Economic Ties Despite Political Conflict
Other documents posted online by Chris Coleman attest that despite Morocco holding the chairmanship of the Al-Quds Committee, and despite the bombings and the deadly blockade of the Gaza Strip, the country continues its exchanges with Israel. This information has recently been corroborated by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. The trade balance between the two countries for the first five months of 2014, released by this body, even shows a sharp increase in Moroccan imports from Israel.
Morocco is ranked among Israel’s five most important African clients. More specifically, the volume of Moroccan imports from Israel is approximately $3.2 million, representing about 14% of its total imports.
Concealed Transactions
These figures prove that Morocco has clearly chosen Israel as an economic partner. Regarding the export of Moroccan goods to Israel, these have, conversely, seen a decline of 81%, falling from $28.3 million during the first five months of 2013 to $5.3 million during the same period in 2014.
The Israeli statistics agency indicates that the recorded drop in Moroccan exports to the Hebrew state can be explained by the fact that many Moroccan and Israeli companies are using increasingly complex trade channels. Simply put, they are becoming difficult to trace.
The reason for using such methods? They are intended to camouflage the scale of trade between the two countries, which is denounced by Moroccan public opinion. The embarrassment caused by the publication of trade statistics by Israeli authorities has reportedly pushed Moroccan and Israeli import-export companies to show more discretion in their transactions.
By Zine Cherfaoui
El Watan, 14/12/2014