The Makhzen and its Press Shocked, France Presse Swept Away by Events

One of the top losers in the achievement made at the level of the African Union, by suspending the status of the state of the Zionist entity as an “observer” till further study, is the Moroccan Makhzen regime, which is considered one of the top supporters of this status, if not the largest at all with other parties as well.

The state of frustration experienced by the Moroccan Makhzen regime as a result of this achievement can be understood by examining how its media, especially those close to the royal palace, dealt with the issue of suspending the Hebrew state’s membership in the institutions of the African Union Commission.

This case is marked by the Moroccan media’s ignorance of the most prominent event at the summit of the AU heads, which was hosted in the Ethiopian capital on Saturday and Sunday, and the most important issue of suspending Israel’s observer status in the union, despite its discussion about the outcomes of this summit, and its abbreviation in condemning the wave of military coups that swept the black continent, especially during the last few months.

The Moroccan Makhzen regime is considered among the four ineffective African countries that did everything in their power to obstruct the expulsion of the Hebrew state at the last African summit, along with Kenya, Togo and Gabon. Even when Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita was asked, in an interview with France 24, about the truth of this matter, he did not deny it but tried hard to search for justifications to drop the legitimacy of the endeavour undertaken by Algeria with its friends from African and Arab countries, evading the answer to the question of the channel’s journalist, who was also Moroccan.

The Moroccan media, despite its small number talked about this issue, delayed it until Monday, after a whole day, and after the Arab League issued a statement signed by its Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, welcoming the success of the endeavour, and after great praises from the factions and the Palestinian government, which expressed their thanks for the Algerian positions in supporting the rights of the Palestinian people.

Moreover, it worked to empty the suspension decision of its content, such as focusing on some aspects of it, like threatening the unity of the African body, according to what was stated in a newspaper headline: “Israel’s membership threatens to blow up the African Union … and the Arab League welcomes its suspension for a while”, in an indication that the decision is temporary and not permanent.

The inability of the Makhzen media to digest what happened in Addis Ababa was also manifested by questioning the suspension decision and emphasized the task that was assigned to a committee consisting of the heads of seven countries, including Algeria, and it was remarkable here, that there is the lack of reference to the membership of Algeria and its president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and mentioning only two countries that the Makhzen press claimed they are close to the Moroccan position on the Western Sahara issue, although this issue has nothing to do with the issue of expulsion of the Hebrew state from the AU Commission.

Some of the “Makhzen Madia” found its consolation only in a telegram to Agence France-Presse, which ignored the decision to suspend Israel’s membership in the African Union, and started talking about the suspension of discussion on this issue, in a desperate attempt to divert the course of events that swept away, in the end, both the Makhzen Press and the Agence France-Presse.

The French news agency quoted unnamed diplomats as saying that “the discussion on the issue of the expulsion of Israel has been suspended at present and a committee will be formed to study the issue”, news that has no aim other than to mislead because the issue of suspending membership took place as soon as this committee was formed, which is considered a victory for advocates of expelling the Hebrew state from the institutions of the African Union, and a resounding defeat for those who were defending its survival in it because removing this issue from the hands of 55 heads of states having it concentrated in the hands of only seven countries is a major achievement and convincing one or two people is not the same as convincing ten or twenty people.