Moroccan Files - Part 1
MB-S1
October 1973. King Hassan II sent Morocco's only battalion to die on the Golan Heights. 170 soldiers killed fighting Israel. Morocco now buys Israeli weapons.
In July 1973, three months before Egypt and Syria launched the October war, King Hassan II of Morocco dispatched Morocco's one and only tank battalion to Syria. Approximately 6,000 soldiers, tanks and artillery were positioned on the eastern slopes of Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights. When fighting began on October 6 1973, the Moroccan battalion fought alongside Syrian forces. Multiple documented accounts in Moroccan and Egyptian press indicate they were left exposed when Syrian forces withdrew during the most intense fighting. They held their position. Sasa Post documented 170 Moroccan soldiers killed on the Golan. Official Yom Kippur War casualty records list 6 Moroccan dead. The gap has never been officially reconciled. No monument in Morocco is dedicated specifically to the soldiers who died fighting for Palestine. Tomorrow: the country that sent those soldiers normalises with Israel in December 2020.
MB-S2
The deployment · July 1973 · Hassan II · Morocco's only battalion · Golan Heights · Three months before the war02 / 07
July 1973. Three months before the war. Hassan II deploys Morocco's one and only tank battalion to Syria.
In September 1973 Egyptian Chief of Staff Saad el-Shazly met King Hassan II in Morocco. In his published memoirs, el-Shazly records that Morocco had already dispatched its sole tank battalion to Syria weeks earlier. The battalion, documented in Al-Ahram and Yabiladi accounts as comprising approximately 6,000 soldiers along with tanks and artillery, was positioned on the Golan Heights on the eastern slopes of Mount Hermon prior to the outbreak of hostilities. Morocco was one of eight Arab states that participated in the October 1973 war. The others were Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Libya. Saad el-Shazly memoirs · Al-Ahram, Egyptian newspaper documentation · Yabiladi, October 2017.
King Hassan II's decision to commit Morocco's only tank battalion to Syria was documented as a gesture of Arab solidarity following the defeat of 1967 and an expression of Morocco's commitment to the liberation of Palestinian and Arab territory. GlobalSecurity.org documents that Hassan II sent the expeditionary force consisting of two tank brigades to supplement Syrian troops on the Golan and that a second force was subsequently dispatched to Egypt, though a ceasefire prevented the Egypt-bound forces from engaging. The Moroccan battalion on the Golan did engage. GlobalSecurity.org, Royal Moroccan Armed Forces under Hassan II · Hespress, Moroccan documentation of the 1973 deployment.
Source: Saad el-Shazly memoirs · Al-Ahram documentation · Yabiladi, en.yabiladi.com, October 2017 · GlobalSecurity.org, globalsecurity.org
MB-S3
The Golan Heights · October 6 1973 · 60,000 Arab forces · Moroccan battalion second line of defence · Mount Hermon03 / 07
The Golan Heights. October 6 1973. 60,000 Syrian forces assisted by Iraqi, Moroccan and Jordanian units. 12,000 Israelis.
The EBSCO Research Starters entry on the Battle of Golan Heights documents the forces present: 12,000 Israelis facing 60,000 Syrians assisted by Iraqi, Moroccan and Jordanian units. The Moroccan battalion was positioned on the second line of defence on the eastern slopes of Mount Hermon, documented in Hespress accounts of the battle. The October 6 1973 surprise attack was launched simultaneously on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts during Yom Kippur. On the Golan, 180 Israeli tanks faced an onslaught of 1,400 Syrian tanks. The fighting was among the most intense armoured combat since the Second World War. EBSCO Research Starters, Battle of Golan Heights · GlobalSecurity.org, Yom Kippur War.
Yabiladi documented that Moroccan soldiers occupied the second line of defence on the eastern slopes of Mount Hermon, known in Arabic as Jabal al-Sheikh. Multiple Moroccan press accounts published around the anniversary of the October war describe the battalion's position and the fighting it engaged in. The Moroccan battalion fought alongside Syrian forces in this position during the initial phase of the war. The Golan Heights had been occupied by Israel in the 1967 war and its recovery was a primary objective of the Syrian axis of the October 1973 offensive. Yabiladi, en.yabiladi.com, October 2017 · Hespress, Moroccan press accounts of the battalion.
Source: EBSCO Research Starters, Battle of Golan Heights, ebsco.com · GlobalSecurity.org · Yabiladi, en.yabiladi.com · Hespress
MB-S4
The fighting · Syrian withdrawal · Moroccan battalion exposed · Held their position · Documented in Moroccan and Egyptian press04 / 07
The Moroccan battalion fought on Mount Hermon. Multiple accounts document they were left exposed when Syrian forces withdrew during the most intense fighting.
Yabiladi's documented account of the Moroccan battalion on the Golan, published October 2017, states that historical events suggest the Moroccan battalion sent to Syria to operate on Mount Hermon was betrayed. The same report cites Sasa Post documentation of the fighting, which states that the brigade fought well in the battle of Mount Hermon and that 170 Moroccan soldiers were killed during the war. The question of whether the Moroccan battalion was abandoned by Syrian forces during the fighting, or whether the description is an account of the broader cost of the battle, is documented in Moroccan press but has not been the subject of an official Moroccan or Syrian government statement. Yabiladi, en.yabiladi.com, October 2017 · Sasa Post, cited in Yabiladi.
Despite the losses, GlobalSecurity.org documents that the Moroccan battalion's performance won Hassan II praise in the Arab world and at home. The October 1973 war, known in Morocco as the Ramadan war, is a documented part of Moroccan military history. The soldiers who fought on the Golan are acknowledged in Moroccan press accounts and in the broader Arab record of the war. Their sacrifice is part of the documented history of the conflict. What is not documented is a monument in Morocco specifically dedicated to the Moroccan soldiers who died fighting for the liberation of Palestinian and Arab land. GlobalSecurity.org, Royal Moroccan Armed Forces under Hassan II.
Source: Yabiladi, en.yabiladi.com, October 2017 · Sasa Post, cited in Yabiladi · Hespress · GlobalSecurity.org, globalsecurity.org
MB-S5
170 documented dead · Official count: 6 · Gap unreconciled · No monument for those who died for Palestine05 / 07
170 Moroccan soldiers killed on the Golan Heights. The official Yom Kippur War casualty records list 6 Moroccan dead. The gap has never been officially reconciled.
Sasa Post, cited in Yabiladi's October 2017 documentation, states that 170 Moroccan soldiers were killed during the battle of Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights. The official Yom Kippur War casualty documentation records 6 Moroccans killed and 6 captured. The discrepancy between 170 and 6 has not been the subject of an official Moroccan government reconciliation or explanation. No official Moroccan government statement clarifying the death toll of the 1973 Golan deployment has been identified in the public record. Yabiladi, en.yabiladi.com, October 2017 · Sasa Post, cited in Yabiladi · Yom Kippur War casualty documentation.
The absence of an official Moroccan monument specifically dedicated to the soldiers who died for Palestine in October 1973 is documented by omission. Morocco has military cemeteries. The October 1973 war is part of Moroccan military history. The specific sacrifice on the Golan Heights, for the liberation of land occupied by Israel, is not marked by a dedicated national memorial. The question of that absence becomes more pointed in light of the Abraham Accords normalisation Morocco signed with Israel in December 2020, forty-seven years after the Golan deployment. Yabiladi, October 2017 · Hespress · Abraham Accords joint declaration, December 2020.
Source: Sasa Post cited in Yabiladi, en.yabiladi.com, October 2017 · Yom Kippur War casualty records · Abraham Accords, December 2020
MB-S6
Syria never acknowledged · Morocco no monument · The dead not in the normalisation narrative · Series final tomorrow06 / 07
Syria never formally acknowledged Morocco's role. Morocco never built a monument to the soldiers who died fighting for Palestine. Tomorrow: the deal that followed.
No Syrian government formal acknowledgment of the Moroccan battalion's role on the Golan Heights in October 1973 has been identified in the public record. The Moroccan soldiers fought under Syrian command structure on Syrian territory. Their documented sacrifice on Mount Hermon is part of the Arab record of the October war as recorded in Al-Ahram and Moroccan press sources. It is not part of an official Syrian commemorative narrative. Al-Ahram · Yabiladi, October 2017 · Hespress.
The documented absence of a Moroccan national monument to those who died on the Golan for Palestine sits alongside the documented reality of the December 2020 Abraham Accords. Morocco normalised with Israel forty-seven years after Moroccan soldiers died fighting it. The normalisation narrative built by the Moroccan state emphasised Jewish heritage and historical bonds. The October 1973 deployment is not in that narrative. Tomorrow: the full record of what Morocco gave, what it got, and what is not mentioned in the deal. Abraham Accords, December 2020 · Eurasia Review, August 2026.
Source: Al-Ahram · Yabiladi, en.yabiladi.com · Hespress · Abraham Accords joint declaration, December 2020
MB-S7
The question. Not a claim. Series final tomorrow.07 / 07
Morocco's soldiers went to Syria in July 1973. They fought on the Golan Heights. 170 did not come back. The official count is 6. Morocco signed a defence agreement with Israel in November 2021. Morocco now buys Israeli weapons. When a government sends soldiers to die for a cause and then normalises with the country those soldiers died fighting, what is the name for what happens to the memory of the dead?
Tomorrow: the series final. The Abraham Accords signed December 2020. US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as the exchange. The Morocco-Israel defence agreement signed Rabat November 2021. Pegasus spyware purchased from Israeli company NSO Group, documented by Amnesty International. The 170 Moroccan soldiers killed on the Golan are not in the normalisation narrative. Part 2 of 2. Series final.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Two new stories every weekFollow UNSILENCED.