At this year’s FIFA World Cup, Palestine is still represented. Moroccan players carried the Palestinian flag with pride at every victory in their matches. Morocco’s public carried Palestinian flags and chanted Palestinian songs at the same time.

Moroccan-Israeli normalization

According to reports, US President Donald Trump announced Morocco and Israel’s agreement to normalize and establish diplomatic relations, making it the fourth Arab country in just four months to do so.

And while this coincided with the United States’ recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, the “Agence France Presse” agency said, “Morocco confirms the resumption of diplomatic relations as soon as possible with Israel.”

Morocco witnessed widespread protests rejecting normalization and abandoning Palestine and the resistance, and the Moroccan leaders considered that this is not considered normalization, but an alliance to facilitate the problems between Palestine and Israel.

A sizable portion of the populace continues to oppose normalization and remain steadfast in their protest both inside and outside the World Cup stadium.

Double Standards

The German national team expressed its anger since the first match after Qatar and FIFA banned the wearing of the LGBTQ badge in matches and considered the German team and the German government a flagrant violation of freedoms. Despite this, a German official wore the gay badge in a subsequent match, not interested in the laws of Qatar and FIFA as a matter of freedom of opinion and expression.

However, after the Morocco-Spain match, the Moroccan national team raised the flag of Palestine, German newspapers criticized the act, saying that it and the German newspaper “Taz” criticized the Moroccan national team’s players raising the Palestinian flag, describing it as “anti-Semitism and a childish challenge to show the alleged Arab unity,” she said.

The German newspaper also attacked the Qatari government, claiming that it supports terrorist resistance movements in waging wars against Israel for years.

The funny thing is that the German side wants to infringe on the freedom of expression and opinion of the Moroccan team, and the freedom of opinion and expression only stands for them.

(UKLFI) protests against FIFA

Famous pro-Israel advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has voiced opposition to the Moroccan football team’s display of the Palestinian flag during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The Jewish Chronicle reports that the London-based organization accused the North African nation of breaking FIFA World Cup regulations in a letter to Jorge Palacio, the chair of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.

After the denunciations of banning alcohol and wearing the LGBTQ badge, expressing that this is a flagrant violation of freedom of opinion and expression, everyone hastened to attack the Moroccan team, which raised the Palestinian flag in solidarity with it against the Israeli aggressions and the ethnic cleansing that Palestine endures and the daily martyrdom in Palestine.

Palestine will remain present in the stadiums, lands, and hearts of everyone, despite all the challenges and attacks it suffers daily.