In line with Morocco's support of Palestinians and their struggle for freedom, a local school organized on Monday in Rabat, the 'Israeli Apartheid week' for the first time in this North African country. The event was hosted by the School of Governance and Economy (EGE).
Palestinian civil society launched a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) in 2005 in Toronto and nurtured it to become a worldwide series of events against Israel and its apartheid policy towards Palestinians.
The campaign gained a very strong reputation among Moroccan students who came to the event in order to better understand the implications of the conflict and why not take sides.
EGE undergraduate student, Zineb expressed her appreciation of the opening lecture by Professor Mohammed Bensalah on the 'Palestinian Cause: historic background and strategic challenges'.
Bensalah provided a detailed timeline of the conflict historical background and summed up the strategic challenges in the fact that one-state solution will not serve the negotiation processes on the ground.
The professor made allusion to the importance of investing in the 'memory' i.e. promoting criticism and urge students to think and develop their knowledge; for what stick in the mind is what matters.
The second point is 'imagination'. People today are more visual and remember better what they see than anything else.
If the message takes two elements to be immortalized: an idea and an image.
The conference was followed by a debate where students questioned the division among Palestinian leading groups and the excessive yearning for power. Many questions poured in the historical background.
The professor summed up the whole conflict and the persistence of the Palestinians by quoting the Italian leftist militant and philosopher : 'Antonio Gramsci: 'I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.'
By Mona Badri
Art19
