RABAT (Dispatches) -- Demonstrators protested outside Morocco’s parliament against the kingdom’s normalization of ties with Israel, and after the Zionist regime recalled its top envoy from Rabat amid a probe into alleged sexual and financial misconduct at the recently-opened Israeli mission.
They chanted slogans against the rapprochement between Morocco and Israel, criticizing Zionist chargé d’affaires David Govrin and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.
“Today, we are in front of the parliament to protest against the hideous acts” committed by Govrin, said Amine Abdelhamid, an activist against normalization between Morocco and the occupying regime of Israel.
“Morocco’s dignity is not for sale, the normalization must end,” he said.
Protesters burned an Israeli flag at the end of the demonstration.
Zionist foreign ministry inspector General Hagay Behar was rushed to Morocco last week after allegations were leveled at the head of the mission, Govrin, regarding serious complaints about the functioning of the office, which opened last year.
The most serious complaint was that “a senior Israeli official” at the mission had sexually exploited several local women, something that could lead to a serious diplomatic incident with Morocco.
There were also complaints of sexual harassment within the mission.
The ministry is also investigating a range of financial and administrative problems, including the disappearance of a very valuable gift sent by the king of Morocco.
It was also investigating reports that a local businessman and Jewish community leader, identified as Samy Cohen, a friend of Govrin, was involved in hosting several Israeli ministers, including Yair Lapid, Ayelet Shaked and Gideon Sa’ar, and initiating meetings between them and local officials, even though he was not in any way officially affiliated with the mission.
The team was also investigating a reported feud between Govrin and the mission’s security officer.
The decision to recall Govrin was made by foreign ministry director-general Alon Ushpiz following an initial investigation carried out by a senior Israeli delegation that arrived in Morocco Monday to collect statements from ministry staff.
According to a report by the Ynet news site, there was a general sense of chaos at the ministry
Tuesday, with the outlet quoting ministry officials as saying “everyone is at each other’s throats.”
The report did not provide details of the investigation but said that a few of the complaints were made by former employees of the Israeli mission in Rabat whom Govrin had fired on different occasions.
Govrin is currently in Occupied Palestine and is involved in the ongoing investigation, an Israeli diplomatic source said.
Morocco became the third Arab state to normalize ties with the occupying regime of Israel under U.S.-brokered deals in 2020, joining the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The Zionist regime’s liaison office in Rabat had been closed in late 2000, when Morocco decided to call off the existing low-level ties between the two regimes with the outbreak of the Second Intifada. Though the two regimes’ liaison offices were closed some 20 years ago, the properties remained in their respective possessions, allowing the two sides to rapidly reopen them.
Recent months have seen a series of top-level visits by Israeli officials to Morocco and the two sides have signed a host of economic, cultural and military cooperation agreements.
Govrin, 58, is considered a senior diplomat and has served at the foreign ministry since 1989. He speaks fluent Arabic, and served as the ambassador to Egypt from 2016 to August 2020.