MOROCCO: BERBER ACTIVISTS PLAN FIRST ISRAELI FRIENDSHIP
ASSOCIATION
Rabat, 26 June (AKI) - A group of Berber activists is planning to create
next month North Africa's first friendship association with Israel, pan-Arab
daily al-Quds al-Arabi reports. The activists plan to hold the official
inauguration on 20 July in the city of Taroudaut, 60 kilometres inland from the
western coastal resort of Agadir, the paper said.
Jewish Berbers living in Israel and Moroccan Berbers will be involved in
the new association, which aims to allow Jewish Berbers to keep in touch with
Berber and Moroccan culture and the Amazigh language, the association's
founding committee said in a statement.
Berber activists are inviting all Moroccans wanting dialogue with Israel
to attend the 20 July inauguration and sign up. But the association faces
hostility from some quarters. It is a "way to divide the Moroccan people and to
deny it its history," al-Quds al-Arabi quoted the Palestinian and Iraq
solidarity association's president Khaled Al-Sufiyani as saying.
Jews make up 0.2 percent of Morocco's population, Arab-Berbers 99 percent
and other groups, 0.7 percent. The country is 99 percent Muslim. Arabic is the
official language, while several Berber dialects are spoken. However French is
often still the language of business, government, and diplomacy.
(Ham/Ajd/Aki)
Jun-26-07 11:47
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