Moroccan Files - Part 2
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December 2020. Morocco normalised with Israel. The same country whose soldiers died fighting Israel on the Golan Heights in 1973. The 170 are not in the narrative.
In December 2020 Morocco signed the Abraham Accords under the Trump administration, establishing full diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations with Israel. The exchange was US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a claim Morocco had pursued for four decades. In November 2021 Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz signed a defence memorandum of understanding with Morocco in Rabat, formalising intelligence sharing, security cooperation and Israeli military exports. Morocco purchased Pegasus spyware from Israeli company NSO Group, documented by Amnesty International's Security Lab and the Forbidden Stories consortium in 2021. The Moroccan state's normalisation narrative emphasised Jewish heritage and civilisational bonds. It did not mention the October 1973 deployment to the Golan Heights. It did not mention the 170 Moroccan soldiers documented as killed fighting Israel on Mount Hermon. No official reconciliation of those two facts exists on the public record. The Moroccan Files close here.
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Abraham Accords · December 2020 · Full diplomatic relations · Western Sahara as exchange · Trump administration02 / 07
December 2020. The Abraham Accords. Morocco normalises with Israel. US recognises Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Morocco signed the Abraham Accords normalisation agreement with Israel in December 2020 under the Trump administration. The joint declaration established full diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations between Morocco and Israel. The agreement made Morocco the fourth Arab state to normalise with Israel under the Trump-era Abraham Accords framework, following the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan. The US State Department's accompanying statement confirmed US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as the direct exchange for Morocco's participation. US State Department, December 2020, state.gov · Abraham Accords joint declaration, December 2020.
The Atlantic Council documented that the normalisation deal gave Morocco something it had pursued for four decades: international recognition of its claims over the Western Sahara territory. Morocco's King Mohammed VI framed the normalisation as the reactivation of historical bonds between Morocco and Israel, citing the history of Jewish communities in Morocco and the presence of over one million Moroccan-heritage Jews in Israel. The normalisation narrative built by the Moroccan state, documented in Eurasia Review's August 2026 analysis, emphasised Jewish heritage and civilisational continuity. The October 1973 military deployment to the Golan Heights was not referenced in the normalisation framing. Atlantic Council, Morocco-Israel analysis, atlanticcouncil.org · Eurasia Review, August 2026.
Source: Abraham Accords joint declaration, December 2020 · US State Department, state.gov · Atlantic Council, atlanticcouncil.org · Eurasia Review, August 2026
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Defence agreement · Rabat November 2021 · Benny Gantz · Intelligence sharing · Israeli military exports to Morocco03 / 07
November 2021. Rabat. Morocco and Israel sign a defence agreement. Intelligence sharing. Israeli military exports to Morocco.
On November 24 2021 Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz visited Rabat for the first official visit by an Israeli defence minister to Morocco. He signed a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation with Moroccan Minister of National Defence Abdellatif Loudiyi. The agreement formalised security cooperation, intelligence sharing and the framework for Israeli military exports to Morocco. Gantz stated publicly that the agreement was very significant and would allow the exchange of ideas, joint projects and enable Israeli military exports to Morocco. Al Jazeera, November 24 2021 · Israeli Ministry of Defence, November 2021.
The Rabat defence agreement was the first formal defence memorandum of understanding between Morocco and Israel. It followed the Abraham Accords normalisation by less than one year. Morocco had previously maintained informal intelligence ties with Israel over multiple decades, documented in the context of Hassan II's cooperation with the Mossad in the 1960s and 1970s. The November 2021 agreement formalised what had previously been covert. The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces subsequently procured Israeli defence systems. Al Jazeera, aljazeera.com, November 2021 · 972 Magazine, Morocco-Israel Africa policy analysis.
Source: Al Jazeera, aljazeera.com, November 24 2021 · Israeli Ministry of Defence, November 2021 · 972 Magazine, 972mag.com
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Pegasus spyware · NSO Group · Amnesty International confirmed · Forbidden Stories consortium · France diplomatic crisis04 / 07
Morocco purchased Pegasus spyware from Israeli company NSO Group. Documented by Amnesty International and the Forbidden Stories consortium.
Amnesty International's Security Lab published technical forensic documentation in 2021 confirming that Morocco was among the states that deployed Pegasus spyware developed by Israeli company NSO Group. The Forbidden Stories consortium, a global network of investigative journalists, published the Pegasus Project in July 2021 documenting the use of Pegasus by multiple states including Morocco. The documentation showed that Moroccan authorities had targeted French President Emmanuel Macron's phone number, among others. Le Monde reported the findings in July 2021, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Morocco and France. Amnesty International, Security Lab, 2021, amnesty.org · Forbidden Stories, 2021 · Le Monde, July 2021.
The Pegasus purchase is significant in the context of the Moroccan Files because it documents a direct financial and operational relationship between Morocco and an Israeli company operating under Israeli government export licensing, within one year of the Abraham Accords normalisation. NSO Group's Pegasus software is subject to Israeli Ministry of Defence export control. Morocco's purchase of Pegasus is therefore a documented instance of Morocco acquiring Israeli military-grade technology, following the formalisation of the defence agreement in November 2021, forty-eight years after Moroccan soldiers fought and died against Israel on the Golan Heights. Eurasia Review, August 2026 · Abraham Bridge Initiative, July 2026.
Source: Amnesty International Security Lab, 2021, amnesty.org · Forbidden Stories consortium, 2021 · Le Monde, July 2021
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Western Sahara · The exchange · US recognition · Sahrawi self-determination · Not in the deal05 / 07
Western Sahara. The price of normalisation. US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty. A claim pursued for four decades. The Sahrawi right to self-determination was not in the deal.
The US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, published in the Trump administration's December 2020 joint statement alongside the Abraham Accords, was the specific territorial exchange for Morocco's normalisation with Israel. Western Sahara is a disputed territory formerly under Spanish colonial administration. Morocco claimed it in 1975 following the Green March. The UN has documented the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination through multiple General Assembly resolutions. The US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara was the first time any permanent Security Council member had formally endorsed Morocco's claim. US State Department, December 2020, state.gov · UN General Assembly resolutions on Western Sahara.
The Atlantic Council documented that US recognition of Western Sahara was of supreme importance to Moroccan national identity, something for which Rabat had lobbied Washington for four decades. The Abraham Bridge Initiative's July 2026 analysis confirmed that for Morocco the December 2020 accord was inseparable from the simultaneous American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Morocco signed the Abraham Accords. The US gave Morocco Western Sahara. Israel received normalisation. The Sahrawi people's claim to self-determination, backed by UN resolutions, was not part of the transaction. Atlantic Council, atlanticcouncil.org · Abraham Bridge Initiative, abrahambridge.com, July 2026.
Source: US State Department, December 2020, state.gov · UN General Assembly resolutions on Western Sahara · Atlantic Council, atlanticcouncil.org · Abraham Bridge Initiative, July 2026
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1973 and 2020 · Two documented facts · No official reconciliation · The 170 not in the narrative · The silence06 / 07
1973. 170 soldiers sent to die for Palestine. 2020. Morocco normalises with Israel. The 170 are not in the normalisation narrative. No official reconciliation of the two facts exists on the public record.
The Abraham Accords joint declaration signed by Morocco in December 2020 cited the historic role of Morocco in preserving the Jewish heritage and traditions of Moroccan Jews. It did not reference the October 1973 deployment of Moroccan soldiers to the Golan Heights. It did not reference the documented 170 Moroccan soldiers killed fighting Israel on Mount Hermon. The normalisation narrative built by the Moroccan state, documented across state media, news outlets and official statements, emphasised Jewish-Muslim coexistence, historical cultural bonds and the presence of over one million Moroccan-heritage Jews in Israel. The 1973 military deployment was not part of that framing. Abraham Accords joint declaration, December 2020 · Eurasia Review, August 2026.
No official Moroccan government statement reconciling the October 1973 Golan Heights deployment with the December 2020 Abraham Accords normalisation has been identified in the public record. No official Moroccan government clarification of the discrepancy between the documented 170 dead and the official casualty count of 6 has been issued. No monument in Morocco dedicated specifically to the soldiers who died fighting for Palestine on the Golan Heights in 1973 has been documented. The dead are in the Moroccan and Egyptian press record. They are not in the official normalisation narrative of the state that sent them to fight. Yabiladi, October 2017 · Hespress · Abraham Accords joint declaration, December 2020.
Source: Abraham Accords joint declaration, December 2020 · Eurasia Review, August 2026 · Yabiladi, October 2017 · Hespress
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The question. Not a claim. Series complete.07 / 07 · Series Final
Morocco sent soldiers to die fighting Israel in 1973. It signed a defence agreement with Israel in 2021. It buys Israeli weapons and intelligence systems. The 170 Moroccan soldiers killed on the Golan Heights are not in the normalisation narrative. When a state erases the memory of its own soldiers to make a deal, whose silence is it?
Moroccan Files complete. Two episodes. The battalion sent to the Golan. The silence that followed. The Abraham Accords. The defence agreement. Pegasus. What Morocco gave and what it got. The dead who are not in the deal. The question is open and on the public record.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Moroccan Files complete. Two new stories every week.Follow UNSILENCED.