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Morocco: Berber activists plan first Israeli friendship association
Rabat, 26 June (AKI) - A group of Berber activists is planning to create next month North Africa's first friendship association with Israel, pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi reports. The activists plan to hold the official inauguration on 20 July in the city of Taroudaut, 60 kilometres inland from the western coastal resort of Agadir, the paper said.Jewish Berbers living in Israel and Moroccan Berbers will be involved in the new association, which aims to allow Jewish Berbers to keep in touch with Berber and Moroccan culture and the Amazigh language, the association's founding committee said in a statement. Berber activists are inviting all Moroccans wanting dialogue with Israel to attend the 20 July inauguration and sign up. But the association faces hostility from some quarters. It is a "way to divide the Moroccan people and to deny it its history," al-Quds al-Arabi quoted the Palestinian and Iraq solidarity association's president Khaled Al-Sufiyani as saying. Jews make up 0.2 percent of Morocco's population, Arab-Berbers 99 percent and other groups, 0.7 percent. The country is 99 percent Muslim. Arabic is the official language, while several Berber dialects are spoken. However French is often still the language of business, government, and diplomacy. "But Mr. President, Raisuli is a Berber." "Well, it goes double for Berbers!" Posted by: mrp 2007-06-26 |
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