‘I Feel at Home Here’: In the Shadow of War, Moroccan Muslims Visit Israel to Promote Peace

Ayoub Koulli knew about Morocco’s ancient and dwindling Jewish community through his father, who would speak about his many Jewish friends in Casablanca. But Koulli’s father passed away, taking his stories with him. Eager to learn more about the history of the Jews, Koulli began a pilgrimage which would take him to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz and eventually to Jerusalem, where he arrived this month with a group of 23 other young Moroccans.

“I feel really emotional being here,” Koulli told The Algemeiner.

The group, called Sharaka, was established in the wake of the Abraham Accords — which Morocco signed — to promote “person-to-person” diplomacy between Israel and Arab countries. During the week-long visit, delegates visited Yad Vashem, the Jewish state’s national memorial to the Holocaust, and other key sites around Israel, including Al Aqsa Mosque. The group also held several meetings with high-tech leaders and Israeli officials, including Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, and former National Security Council adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat who addressed the group in Moroccan Arabic.

The group visited Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, the site of the Nova festival massacre, and the villages and kibbutzim in the Gaza periphery which were attacked by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7.

Achraf Ibra, 29, said he was in his twenties when he was introduced for the first time to the notion of the Holocaust. “The subject was never mentioned,” he said.

He went on to say that visiting Yad Vashem was a “deeply moving experience” that was also “extremely necessary, especially in this particular context where antisemitism is resurfacing everywhere in the world, even in Western societies that were previously less affected by this phenomenon.”

Sharaka’s executive director Dan Feferman said one of the group’s aims was to educate Arabs and Muslims on “taboo” subjects like the Holocaust. “By learning from history’s darkest chapters, we can become inspired to spread light and tolerance throughout our communities,” he said.

As an artist booker and event producer for music festivals, Koulli was already acquainted with prominent Israeli DJs and as such did not share the same biases against Israelis as some of his peers back home. “Before the trip I believed Israel has the right to defend itself and I still believe that,” he said.

But learning the meaning of Zionism marked a change for him. “Beforehand, I thought Zionism was very radical — it was a bad word for me,” Koulli said.

In May, Koulli joined Sharaka on the annual March of the Living, a Holocaust education program that brings people from around the world to Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Poland. It marked the first time a pan-Arab delegation participated in a march of solidarity for Jews. While there, Youssef Elazhari, Shakara’s director in Morocco, slammed a small group of anti-Israel protesters who were hurling invectives related to the Gaza war at marchers.

“To counter a peaceful march like that is so f—ked up. I will never tolerate that. And sometimes these people talk in the name of Islam,” he said.

“As a Muslim, I will march with the Jews because I feel that if we don’t acknowledge [the Holocaust], it’s a huge denial of our own humanity,” he said.

The anti-Israel protesters, Elazhari averred, “just missed the logic about humanity.”

For Salah Ghrissi, a photographer and food influencer from Fez, the most significant turning point was learning that Arabs and Jews are equal under the law in Israel, where Arabs comprise 21 percent of the population.

“The biggest myth that was debunked for me was that Arabs do not have the same rights [as Jews],” he said.

Until a month ago, Ghrissi had no involvement with Sharaka and only heard about the trip through his friend, Moroccan singer Hodayah. Ghrissi said he came largely out of curiosity and an urge to see what was happening in Israel on the ground after seeing so much on the news.

“I thought, it’s impossible that a whole country is a ‘baby killer’; it doesn’t make sense. I need to go and see,” he said.

Witnessing the devastation of the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7 was especially impactful. “Standing there and seeing the bullet and grenade holes in the houses was very hard,” he said.

Ghrissi admitted that he paid a social price for his decision and that some of his friends could not understand his motivation for visiting Israel. He acknowledged that they were exposed to only very anti-Israel Arabic-language media. Elazhari, who led the delegation in Israel, admitted that he too used to be a “victim” of Al Jazeera propaganda. For another participant who asked to remain anonymous, the stakes were even higher. “I received death threats,” he said.

A poll published earlier this year by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies showed that 75 percent of Moroccans consider the Oct. 7 attack a “legitimate act of resistance” and 95 percent categorized US policy on the war as “bad.”

Ghrissi said he lost several dozen social media followers. “I got asked how much Israel was paying me.”

For Koulli, the way to peace is through cultural exchanges and socializing through music.

“Every night since I’ve been here, we’re getting invited out by different people. Israelis have been so open — even been giving us the keys to their house.”

“I feel totally at home,” he added.

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