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A promotional video released by the Global Sumud Flotilla platform has sparked a wave of anger in Morocco after it defended the Polisario Front's position on the Sahara dispute, in what many viewed as a departure from the initiative's stated mission.
The platform sought to draw a parallel between the Palestinian cause and the Sahara issue, announcing that its new documentary series would explore «the interconnectedness of resistance and liberation movements around the world». The first episode is titled «One Struggle: Western Sahara».
The video describes the Sahara as «a territory under Moroccan occupation with the backing of powerful governments» and presents the Polisario Front as the «Sahrawi liberation movement». It also claims that «the Sahrawis' struggle for independence continues» following what it describes as the International Court of Justice's rejection of Moroccan and Mauritanian claims to sovereignty over the territory.
Misrepresentations and a «serious breach»
In response, the Justice and Development Party (PJD) condemned «in the strongest terms» the content published by the Global Sumud Flotilla, saying it contained «grave misrepresentations regarding the Moroccan Sahara» and had dragged the initiative into an issue unrelated to its mission.
The party stressed that the flotilla was established by activists from different countries with the sole objective of helping break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the PJD's General Secretariat described the incident as «a grave mistake and a dangerous breach», warning that it could cost the initiative some of the popular support it had enjoyed. It added, however, that the episode would not alter «the established historical and legal facts regarding the Moroccanness of the Sahara and Morocco's sovereignty over its southern provinces», a matter it said enjoys broad national consensus and is reinforced by UN Security Council resolutions and the positions of several countries, including permanent members of the Council.
The party also warned that the flotilla had «placed itself in confrontation with all Moroccans», arguing that the Sahara issue concerns the Kingdom's national unity and territorial integrity. It accused foreign actors of exploiting the dispute to promote separatist entities and fuel instability in the region.
The PJD called on those behind the initiative to apologize and correct what it described as a «grave mistake» that had diverted the flotilla from its declared purpose.
Calls for an investigation
The Moroccan Initiative for Support and Advocacy, an independent civil organization with an Islamic frame of reference that supports the Palestinian cause, also strongly condemned the content published on the Global Sumud Flotilla's official page, describing it as an affront to Morocco, its territorial integrity and the Moroccan Sahara.
The group denounced what it called a «dangerous deviation» from the initiative's humanitarian mission, warning that the suffering of Gaza's residents was being exploited to advance «agendas of separatism and division» in the region.
It called for an investigation into the incident and for those responsible to be identified, arguing that the publication was an insult to Moroccans, some of whom had participated in previous aid convoys and flotillas to Gaza and had been arrested and tortured by Israeli authorities as a result.
The organization further described the episode as «a free service to the Zionist occupation and its backers», arguing that it sought to sow division among participants in international efforts to break the blockade on Gaza.
For his part, Aziz Hennawi, secretary-general of the Moroccan Observatory Against Normalization, said those behind the move were «undoubtedly serving the Zionist project and seeking to sabotage the flotilla from within».
He argued that «Zionist fingerprints are clearly present in this affair», accusing those responsible of exploiting the Sahara issue to deliberately create tensions among the flotilla's participants, distort its original message and undermine future initiatives.
Hennawi also questioned whether the Sahara issue fell within the remit of the Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, answering in the negative. He stressed that Moroccan organizations had supported the initiative from the outset and would never have joined it had its organizers openly embraced what he described as the separatist narrative.
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