Young Moroccan leaders attend Sharaka’s tolerance program in Israel amid Gaza war, regional tensions

The Sharaka delegation at the Knesset. (Photo: Sharaka)

The ongoing war in Gaza has fueled growing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments throughout the Arab and Muslim world. To counter this trend and promote coexistence, a group of 23 young Moroccan leaders, influencers, academics and civil society activists recently traveled to Israel to attend Sharaka’s tolerance program through Holocaust education in the Arab and Muslim world.

Founded at the time of the historic Arab Israeli Abraham Accords in 2020, Sharaka (Arab for partnership) is the brainchild of young Israelis and Arabs who seek genuine peace and tolerance between Jews and Muslims. Holocaust denial is a widespread phenomenon throughout much of the Muslim world.

The Sharaka organization, which views itself as a “peace start-up,” currently has offices in Israel, Morocco and Bahrain.

Sharaka chairman and co-founder, Amit Deri, welcomed the arrival of the Moroccans, emphasizing that “a cohort of brave young Moroccans who have chosen to come to Israel as courageous statement in support of Israel-Morocco relations and Jewish-Muslim coexistence in a time when anti-Israel sentiment in the Arab and Muslim world is tense and volatile following the October 7 attack and ongoing war in Gaza.”

The young Moroccans who experienced Israel’s diverse society, visited sites of historic and religious importance in Jerusalem, to community leaders and Israeli high-tech executives. In addition, the young Moroccans also met Israeli Moroccan Jews, including Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and the former National Security Council Chief Meir Ben Shabbat. The latter even delivered a lecture to the guests in the Moroccan Arabic dialect. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis with Moroccan Jewish roots have begun to form a natural cultural bridge between the two countries.

At the center of the tolerance program was an extensive seminar at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, located in Jerusalem. The Moroccan delegation also visited sites of the recent Oct. 7 terror attack, when Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 Israelis – the largest number of Jews murdered in a single day since the Holocaust.

Delegation of Young Moroccan leaders Visits Misgav 🇮🇱🇲🇦

Yesterday, the Misgav Institute had the privilege of hosting a delegation of young Moroccan leaders who came to Israel with @sharakango , an Israeli-Arab organization dedicated to promoting peace and partnership in the… pic.twitter.com/cGKHD2X9Fn

— Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist (@MisgavINSen) July 9, 2024

Israel currently has diplomatic relations with seven Arab states: Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

The overall purpose of Sharaka’s tolerance work is to put a human face on the diplomatic ties by building peace from the roots that extend beyond formal peace agreements. This requires direct interactions between regular Jews and Arabs.

In January 2021, Emirati social activist Majid Sarrah was deeply affected by a visit of young Arabs to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

“I hardly could stop myself from crying,” Sarrah said. “We are here to ensure that these kinds of acts, genocides, are never going to be happening in the future, he added. The Emirati social activist also felt overwhelmed by Israeli hospitality. “I feel like home,” Sarrah concluded.

Amjad Taha, a British-Arab social media influencer and political commentator in Bahrain with over 300,000 followers, began noting three years ago that visits to Israel are essential for building peace between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East.

“The vaccine for peace and for this war and hate and everything is to carry on, to keep visiting Israel,” Taha stated.

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