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Western Sahara Overlooked in Israel/Arab Summit Reporting Ari Paul ([link removed])


AP: Arab, US top diplomats in Israel as Mideast dynamic shifts

Western Sahara went unmentioned in AP's report (3/28/22 ([link removed]) ) on Morocco and other Arab governments meeting with Israel.

Israeli officials recently hosted representatives of Morocco, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. For US media, this meant many things, but one thing that didn’t make the papers was that Israel and Morocco share a common goal: maintaining military occupations that are widely condemned throughout the world.

For the Washington Post (3/28/22 ([link removed]) ), the meeting on “Israeli soil showed a new level of comfort between Israel and its Arab neighbors,” noting that the Arab countries in “attendance thanked Israel for hosting but also maintained that it must make progress on implementing a two-state solution for the Palestinians.”

The Wall Street Journal (3/28/22 ([link removed]) ) said the meeting built “fresh momentum for discussions to create new Middle East defense partnerships,” and could “boost economic and security ties” between the nations, with all the parties “motivated by a shared desire to contain Iran.”

The AP (3/28/22 ([link removed]) ) said the meeting was Israel’s “bid to strengthen its position in a rapidly shifting Middle East.”


** Key piece of context
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Al Jazeera: Blinken to visit Israel, West Bank, Morocco and Algeria

In reporting on Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Mideast trip, Al Jazeera (3/24/22 ([link removed]) ) mentioned that Donald Trump "recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara—a move that Biden has not reversed."

These summations aren’t inaccurate, but what was missing from most of the reports on this subject—or in some cases buried—is Morocco's ongoing occupation of the Western Sahara region. According to Al Jazeera (3/24/22 ([link removed]) ), when Israel and Morocco established diplomatic relations in 2020, then-President Donald Trump “recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara." Noting that the Biden administration has not reversed course on this, Al Jazeera added that the “State Department’s statement detailing [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken’s upcoming trip to Morocco did not mention the issue.”

The New York Times (3/28/22 ([link removed]) ) report on the submit did mention this fact, but toward the middle in the series of lengthy dispatches.

The occupation of Western Sahara isn’t a mere geopolitical detail, but a key piece of context to the current news. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (3/25/22 ([link removed]) ) noted that “Israel announced a memorandum of understanding with Morocco on military cooperation after top Israeli military officers visited their counterparts in Morocco,” but didn’t offer other details. The Jerusalem Post (3/26/22 ([link removed]) ) went deeper, saying Morocco had “received three Israeli Heron reconnaissance drones” that “will be deployed to counter extremist groups and fight rebel movements in Western Sahara.” In short, if the Post is to be believed, Israel is aiding Morocco’s long-term occupation of Western Sahara.


** Africa's last colony
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Western Sahara became a Spanish colony in 1884, and when the Spanish dictatorship eroded in 1975, Morocco moved 350,000 of its citizens into the region, even though the local Saharawi indigenous movement had formed the rebel Polisario Front two years before (BBC, 9/7/21 ([link removed]) ).

As described by the Rule of Law in Armed Conflict ([link removed]) , while countries across Africa decolonized, Western Sahara traded one occupying power for another. When Spain withdrew in 1975, it agreed to divide Western Sahara between Morocco and Mauritania. But as a colonial power without sovereignty over the territory, Spain "could not have unilaterally transferred" sovereignty, according to the UN ([link removed]) .

After Morocco and Mauritania annexed the region, the Polisario Front, which the UN recognizes as the official representation of the Sahrawi people, began a war for independence. That war ended in a 1991 ceasefire with Morocco—which controls roughly two-thirds of the region's territory—but began again in 2020, when the Polisario Front resumed armed conflict. Today Western Sahara is the only African region still included in the UN’s list ([link removed]) of non-self-governing territories.

“Morocco has claimed authority over Western Sahara since 1975, but the United Nations (UN) does not recognize Moroccan control,” according to Freedom House ([link removed]) , which adds that “civil liberties are severely restricted” in the occupied area.

There are only slightly more than a half million people living in Western Sahara, but the BBC speculates Morocco’s desire to hold onto the place is based in material interest, saying that area is “home to phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds off its coast,” and “is also believed to have as yet untapped offshore oil deposits.” The Polisario Front condemned the US endorsement of Morocco’s control of Western Sahara in exchange for the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel (Reuters, 12/10/20 ([link removed]) ).

Strife continues in the region today, as “Morocco has cracked down on pro-independence activists in Western Sahara,” according to Human Rights Watch (12/18/20 ([link removed]) ), which said in its 2022 World Report ([link removed]) :

Moroccan authorities systematically prevent gatherings supporting Sahrawi self-determination, obstruct the work of some local human rights NGOs, including by blocking their legal registration, and on occasion beat activists and journalists in their custody and on the streets, or raid their houses and destroy or confiscate their belongings. Human Rights Watch documented some of these beatings and raids, including of the house of independence activist Hassan Duihi in May 2021.


** Western-friendly bonds
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The omission of Morocco’s continued occupation of Western Sahara points to a broader problem with the coverage of Israel’s recent ties with Arab leaders. Coverage of the recent summit celebrate a kind of normalization between Israel and Arab states, rather than portraying it as the tightening of bonds between the West and Western-friendly regimes. These ties don’t do anything to advance the interests of Palestinians, who are living on Israeli occupation in a system numerous observers refer to as apartheid (FAIR.org, 2/3/22 ([link removed]) ).

Worse, these regimes are not advancing liberalism in the Middle East by any stretch of the administration. For example, in the UAE, Israel is cozying up up to a regime with an appalling labor rights record: The Emirates have long been criticized for the exploitation of imported labor in a manner many advocates call modern-day slavery (Vice, 4/5/09 ([link removed]) ). Human Rights Watch said ([link removed]) that Egypt, which has had a peace agreement ([link removed]) with Israel since 1979, is currently suffering from “one of its worst human rights crises in many decades.”

That both Morocco and Israel are occupying powers is less a coincidence as it is emblematic of the type of relationships Israel is building with Western-friendly Arab countries—regardless of the cost to human rights. Omitting the importance of Morocco’s occupation has the effect of concealing the reality of what this recent summit represents.
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Featured image: Western Sahara (cc photo: Thomas Boutreux)

Research assistance: Luca GoldMansour
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