Syndication
An Arab King Righteous Among the Nations?
Print this article
Email this article
Other articles by Marc Perelman
More in NewsRabat, Morocco - Morocco and Israel have a longstanding relationship veiled in secrecy, one involving quiet diplomatic initiatives and discreet intelligence cooperation. So it is only fitting that it is a stealth campaign that is pushing to have a former king of Morocco become the first Arab admitted to Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the Nations, which recognizes non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.
No formal request has been submitted to have Mohammed V, the wartime king, admitted to Yad Vashem. Promoters of the initiative in Morocco and in Israel are reluctant to talk about it publicly and are working behind the scenes.
“There is no formal demand; this is an exploratory phase,” said Serge Berdugo, who heads Morocco’s Jewish community and is a Moroccan ambassador-at-large. “All Moroccan Jews here and in Israel dream about it, but it is a long and difficult process.”
Robert Satloff, executive director of the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, prompted the latest round of activity on the issue. His book “Among the Righteous: Lost Stories From the Holocaust’s Long Reach Into Arab Lands,” published last year, describes the antisemitic persecutions suffered by Jews in Arab countries during World War II and sheds new light on the positive role played by Mohammed V.
After the book appeared, Berdugo quietly inquired with Yad Vashem about the possibility of honoring the late king. He received the endorsement of Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, and that of a number of Israeli politicians of Moroccan origin.
In addition to history, there are some more immediate motivations behind the campaign. The obvious symbol of having an Arab — especially an Arab leader — among the Righteous at a time of turmoil in the Middle East is seen as sending a signal that relations between Israel and the Arab world are slowly improving. The trend is further illustrated by a July meeting in Paris between then-Moroccan foreign minister Mohamed Benaissa and his Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni. Morocco also attended the Annapolis, Md., conference last month and is likely to be among the first of those Arab countries without formal ties to Israel to take steps toward normalization if a genuine peace process takes hold.
For Jerusalem, the Yad Vashem move would show its determination to normalize ties with Arab countries. And Morocco could project an image of moderation at a time when it is courting Washington’s support on Western Sahara, a disputed territory that Morocco claims, but also one that a separatist group supported by Algeria would like to become independent. After years of paralysis, Morocco recently unveiled an autonomy proposal for the region and won cautious support from the Bush administration after years of America’s neutrality on the issue.
Morocco has no official diplomatic relationship with Israel, though it does not observe the Arab League boycott and was one of the few Arab countries to establish low-level diplomatic ties with Israel during the Oslo peace process.
Over the years, Morocco has, on several occasions, helped the Israeli-Arab process through discreet diplomatic initiatives, such as facilitating the Israeli-Egyptian breakthrough of 1977 and hosting Israeli leaders. This started with a historic visit by Shimon Peres in 1986, at a time when there was no peace process. In addition, the intelligence services of both countries have enjoyed a good relationship over the years, including Israeli tips of plots against the royal family and negotiations over the exodus to Israel of hundreds of thousands of Moroccan Jews, according to books published in recent years. Both the diplomatic and the security ties, which are the exclusive purview of the king and his inner circle, are rarely discussed in Morocco, given the strong public pro-Palestinian sentiment.
Whether Mohammed V, who died in 1961, will become a member of the Righteous remains uncertain, given Yad Vashem’s strict eligibility rules. Among the 22,000 Righteous, some 70 are Muslims, most of whom are from Turkey and the Balkans. There are no Arabs among them, according to Yad Vashem spokeswoman Estee Yaari, who added that no formal request had been submitted for the late Moroccan monarch.
The trickiest criterion is determining whether the late king actually risked his life to save Jews during the rule of the pro-Nazi French authorities from mid-1940 to November 1942, when American troops arrived and changed the balance of power. Citing testimonies of the king’s quiet resistance campaign against the French antisemitic edicts, Berdugo claims that the king had indeed done so.
When the Vichy regime extended its anti-Jewish laws to Morocco in October 1940, the king maneuvered to limit their implementation. A 1941 telegram from the French foreign ministry, uncovered in the mid-1980s, discussed the worsening tensions between the French authorities and the king because of Mohammed V’s unwillingness to distinguish among his subjects. Some Moroccan Jews even claim that he asked the French authorities to bring him yellow stars for his family to wear. Some observers have expressed doubt over the episode, which illustrates the near-mythical aura of the king among Moroccan Jews — the vast majority of whom immigrated to Israel and Europe after Israel’s independence and the 1967 war.
Richard Prasquier, Yad Vashem’s representative in France, believes that Mohammed V did not risk his life. Prasquier also said that he was never confronted with an official request that they be deported to Nazi death camps. Others suspect that diplomatic calculations are the main impetus behind the campaign.
“It’s a nice political coup,” said Ahmed Benchemsi, editor of the leading independent weekly Tel Quel. The magazine published a story a few months ago about the existence of forced labor camps in Morocco for some 2,000 Jews who had fled Europe during World War II.
At the time described in Tel Quel’s story, the French authorities were in control of Morocco and oversaw the camps’ administration, leaving little power to the king. But the article raised doubts over his willingness to protect Jews beyond Moroccan ones.
Satloff, who declined comment for this article, recounts in “Among the Righteous” the hardship of those far-flung camps, but he absolves the king of responsibility.
Satloff has a ready explanation for the fact that no Arabs have made it to Yad Vashem: a collective unwillingness to be associated with the Holocaust, which is perceived in Arab countries as the direct impetus for the creation of Israel.
In order to break this taboo and to respond to the spread of Holocaust denial in the Arab world, Satloff himself submitted a formal request to Yad Vashem early this year for Khaled Abd al-Wahab, a Tunisian aristocrat who hid a Jewish family from the Nazis, based on testimony from a family member. In contrast to Morocco, Tunisia was under direct Nazi rule at the time, which could bolster al-Wahab’s chances. The museum said his application was under consideration.
Comments
No shame there, no limits to politicizing the Holocaust. Muhammad V was connected with Nazi intelligence and sympatizer of Hitler. That what they said Yad va-Shem in 1980-th when Morocco-born mayor of Ashkelon wanted to name the plaza in his name. No business like Shoah business
If I am not mistaken, Berbers, while Muslims, are not Arabs and lived in North Africa long before the Arabs
It saddens me that we, Jews, should continue to perpetuate this lie. In a country dominated by Vichy France who surprised the Nazis with their willingness to send our people to the gas chambers, that we should continue to believe that a king without power or influence is still believed that he saved the Jewish community of Morocco. There is no truth to this. We, the Jews of Morocco, should put an end to this romantic myth.
I don't think it is so bad to make the late king of Morocco a righteous gentile. If it brings some people closer to peace, so be it.
If you believe any of this nonsense than perhaps you may also believe that Adolf Hitler really loved the jewish people.
This article appears in Haaretz online newspaper in english dated 14 DECEMBER SEE MY COMMENTS in Haaretz -I called my talkback response - Righteous GENTILE????? signed Jordan.IL.
I understood that while there were ghetto-like camps in both Morocco and Libya, no mass murders occurred. Why haven't survivors been interviewed? Isn't that how the other "righteous" been indentified and verified? 70,000 Muslim righteous and not 1 Arab? Inconceiveable!! Perhaps, Mohammed V wasn't righteous. But NO ONE? Is this revealing religious/ethnic bigotry on the part of Yad Vashem?
It is well known to historians that the king Mohamed V has replied to vichy regime when he was asked to deliver Moroccan Jewish leaders to the Nazzi regime, as follows " There are no moroccan jews, but only moroccans". The king had still authority in Morocco even under French protectorate and denying his good deeds in saving moroccan jewish from the Vichy regime is simply revisionism. I beleive that nobody has asked from Morocco to add him to Yad Vashem's list of rightious 6 gentle people who saved jewish lives, but at least his gesture should be recongnized and not denied. A culture of tolerance in Morocco is still endured and there are still moroccan jewish living in Morocco occupying even important positions in the economical and political arena in the country.
Morocco is not an arab country!!! Morocco is an Amazigh (Berber) country and all have to know that the origin population of morocco have welcomed the jew people who fleed from the europe. Now in this time, their are many Imazighen (Berber) who are jews!! This is not a problem for us Imazighen because we are accepting every religion and our cultur is not like the arabe cultur, we are Imazighen free people.
Israel's cheap politicization of the suffering and murder of Jews during the Second World War is shameless. It is "holocaust denial" in its own right. I cannot pass judgment on the wartime actions of the Moroccan king in question but the present affair seems redolent of the lobbying and hypocrisy surrounding a comic-opera attempt some years ago to enshrine Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria -- a man directly responsible for arrest and deportation to death camps of more than 10,000 Jews in Macedonia and northeastern Greece -- in Yad Va'Shem. I wish more Jews would stand up to Israel's rewriting and trivialization of our history.
a bunch of none sense ... at least we know that what goes around comes arround ;) whether You honour or Deny the favour they are both an Honour To Mohamed V.and To us all .in fact this articles is going way out of Track .some are talking about Native hebrew I mean indian americans ooops who is who ?!The only thing I'm sure about is that Ishmael was Born before Isaak.hen?what does that mean .ok let's leave this none sense to people that at least can not deny a favour of a dead man .perhaps one favour is remembered and not hidden or oghnored like many that were upon THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Well I don't Like The attitude of certain ones here Enough is Enough. it was suppose to be a Reward an appreciation not a mockery and fight ?can You just be Human .We All know how to Talk none sense..Goodbye.
If all this was/is true how come that most of the Jews of Morocco had to flee the country clandestinely without their goods or money in the late forties and fifities. It surely was not because they were so well treated or protected by the political forces that were in that country. Anti-semitism in Morocco is and was rampant until most of the jews escaped to France and/or Israel. Many Jewish out-of-country Moroccans are still living a dream as they have forgotten why their parents departed their country so abruptly. Thought also should be given to the idea that if the French had not been in Morocco during the war what would Arabs have done to their Jewish Populace. HOW EASY WE FORGET WHAT IS/WAS.
They didn't flee the country because of Fear .They have fled The country because The Church and exactly England wants ti implant The jews in the middle east and Needed All jewish to Respond .in fact when the jews Left it was a Sort of Economy crisis in many Famous cities in Morocco.in fact Mellah is the Name of The Protected town jews Lived in.it is Stil until Right Now Standing.as a person was mentioning here Moroccan jews have not All left and they are occupying very serious places in the country.So watch out the bad reputaion You are given Them Now . Go Study well History.Come Visit The place here See with Your own eyes .there are jews who comes every year To visit their jewish families and celebrate their Holidays. and Stop been biased . You may ask why do we see a daily Murder in Palistine and a whole propagandas against Muslims mainly Arabs.it is pretty Sad to be complaining of a something that You do Yourself .? Ah what is it .sorry You need to figure it out Yourselves . and Come back to Your Lord. [O children of Israel! Remember those blessings of Mine with which I graced you, and how I favored you above all other people. And guard yourselves against a day when no soul will in aught avail another, nor will intercession be accepted from it, nor will compensation be received from it, nor will they be helped. And remember the time when We saved you from Pharaoh's people, who afflicted you with cruel suffering, slaughtering your sons and sparing only your women — which was an awesome trial from your Sustainer; and when We cleft the sea before you, and thus saved you and caused Pharaoh's people to drown before your very eyes] (Al-Baqarah 2:47-50)
[We took the Children of Israel across the sea: Pharaoh and his hosts followed them in insolence and spite. At length, when overwhelmed with the flood, he said: "I believe that there is no god except Him Whom the Children of Israel believe in: I am of those who submit to Allah." It was said to him: "Ah, now? But a little while before, wast thou in rebellion! and thou didst mischief and violence! This day shall We save thee in the body, that thou may be a sign to those who come after thee! but verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our Signs!"
We settled the Children of Israel in a beautiful dwelling-place, and provided for them sustenance of the best: it was after knowledge had been granted to them, that they fell into schisms. Verily Allah will judge between them as to the schisms amongst them, on the Day of Judgment.] (Yunus 10:90-93) [O my people! Remember the blessings which God bestowed upon you when he raised up prophets among you, and made you your own masters, and granted unto you favors such as He had not granted to anyone else in the world.] (Al-Mai'idah 5:20) [And lastly, We have inspired thee, O Muhammad, with this message: Follow the creed of Abraham, who turned away from all that is false, and was not of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God.] (An-Nahl 16:23)
Deuteronomy
18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Think about Mohamed v perhaps Mohamed peace be upon him. Now we know that christians claim it is jesus and we know that jesus is unlike moses but Mohamed is very close and is as Moses .WARIOR .and had no father no Mother that raised him.
http://www.modia.org/messas/amar.html I Also Would Like to mention that Mohamed VI Should be Considered as One on The List Looking at All the Sacrifices he makes in Order to have Religious Tolerance and PEACE Between faiths in Morocco . Looking at How Jews are Still Considered Moroccans no Matter what extremism we face in this World .Mohamed 6 Still Follow The Same Great Behavior of His Grand father Mohamed v. PLEASE HONOR THEM ALL. BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM.