Morocco's late king had special relationship with Israel

Monday, July 26, 1999

JERUSALEM [MENL] -- The late King Hassan had a special relationship with Israel.

In 1976, Hassan opened a secret dialogue with the Jewish state that led to peace talks between Egypt and Israel. The talks led to the visit of President Anwar Sadat to Israel in 1977 and a peace treaty 18 months later.

Hassan maintained a quiet dialogue with Israel, particularly politicians of Moroccan descent, even through the tensions of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

"All his life he demonstrated rare courage and political sensibility, as a vanguard in front of the camp in getting close to Israel, and in building political and economic bridges with it," Prime Minister Ehud Barak said.

Hassan was the most enthusiastic proponent of the peace process that followed the 1993 Israeli-PLO interim accords. In October 1994, the Moroccan king hosted some 2,500 people at the first Middle East regional economic conference in Casablanca. The conference included a large Israeli delegation.

The Moroccan king appeared proud of Israel's large Moroccan Jewish population, one of the largest communities in the country. He would regularly invite politicians and rabbis of Moroccan descent for meetings.

"There was no Muslim leader who knew as well as he how to preserve and develop ties with his country's Jews," said Foreign Minister David Levy, who emigrated from Morocco in 1957.

Israeli leaders postponed both international and domestic sessions to attend the funeral. Barak rescheduled meetings with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat for Tuesday night and with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for Thursday.

But Levy said that Barak and Assad might hold a meeting during the funeral.

"Even sad occasions can provide an opportunity for meetings between world leaders, but nothing has been finalized yet," Levy told Israel Radio.

Hassan allowed secret Jewish emigration began by his father King Mohammed V, to continue in 1961. Israel and Morocco had security and intelligence exchanges in the 1960s, foreign reports said, that included reports on Israel's foe Egypt.

During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, however, Morocco sent a combat brigade to Syria and relations with Israel cooled. In 1976, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was invited to Rabat and held secret meetings with the king's envoy, Hassan Tohami. Intelligence and security cooperation were eventually renewed.