Benkirane Slams Head of Moroccan Media Group over Article Defending Israel

Abdelilah Benkirane, Secretary-General of Morocco's opposition Justice and Development Party. (Photo: World Economic Forum, via Wikimedia Commons)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

“It is not enough for some to repeat slogans such as ‘We are all Israel’, but they go as far as writing positions that justify Israel’s aggression and oppose the rights of the Palestinian people.”

The Secretary-General of Morocco’s Justice and Development Party, Abdelilah Benkirane, has slammed the head of the country’s Global Media Holding group, Ahmed Charai, after he published an article defending Israel and its leaders.

The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported that in a speech at a festival organized by his party in Agadir on Saturday, Benkirane described the article as “shameful.”

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Benkirane noted that such statements are not in line with the principles and values of defending the rights of the Palestinian people.

“It is not enough for some to repeat slogans such as ‘We are all Israel’, but they go as far as writing positions that justify Israel’s aggression and oppose the rights of the Palestinian people.”

On November 27, the General Secretariat of the Justice and Development Party categorically rejected the contents of Charai’s article published in the Times of Israel newspaper, describing it as “explicit praise for genocide and state terrorism,” the MEMO report added.

ICC’s ‘Legitimacy’

In a featured article published in The Blogs section of the Times of Israel on November 24, Charai described the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as a “shocking move” saying it was “first time” the ICC had acted against “the leader of a democratic government.”

Charai said the decision by the ICC “raises serious questions about the court’s legitimacy and impartiality.”

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“A nation’s right to self-defense is a bedrock of international law, and Israel’s response to the brutal Hamas attacks should be seen in this light,” wrote Charai.

The ICC issued arrest warrants over a week ago for Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of “crimes against humanity and war crimes,” compelling the ICC’s 124 member states to arrest them should they enter their territory.

Charai claimed that Netanyahu was not the “sole person to blame” for the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza, but that “the real culprits” were “the Iranian regime.”

According to The Times of Israel, Charai “is the publisher of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune and the CEO of a Morocco-based media conglomerate.”

He is also on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Center for the National Interest and the Global Board of Advisors of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,466 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 105,358 wounded.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

Scores Displaced

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(MEMO, PC)

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