In a first, Enaam Mayara, President of the Moroccan House of Councillors is set to travel to Israel on September 7 for a diplomatic visit following the invitation of the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Amir Ohana.
Mayara will be one of the most senior foreign Muslim parliamentarians ever to attend Israel’s Knesset, making this a significant visit to further bridge between Israel and Morocco.
According to media reports, Ohana said that this upcoming trip is “a precedent-setting visit that attests to the new era that has been created in Israel-Morocco relations.”
Ohana was the first Knesset speaker to visit Morocco’s parliament in June, and a group of Israeli legislators visited the Kingdom this summer as part of a larger legislative forum.
Son of Jewish immigrants from Morocco, Ohana said that Mayara’s visit expresses a “hopeful reality, which teaches us about the possibilities of expanding the circles of peace in the Middle East.”
The Abraham Accords’ normalization of relations between Israel and Morocco in 2020, which resulted in strengthening the relations between the two member countries, was not without its ups and downs.
For example, in response to Israeli settlement announcements, Rabat abandoned its plan to host the Negev Forum this summer in June.
Since it was originally scheduled to take place in March, the meeting of foreign ministers from Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt, and the US has been postponed several times due to rising tensions between Israelis and Palestinians as well as discontent among some Arab leaders with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Besides being Morocco’s head of councilors, Mayara is also the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, an umbrella group representing regional legislatures, which is why a number of politicians joining him on the regional visit will also meet with Ohana.
The assembly’s objective is to look into methods to increase bilateral collaboration between the two legislative bodies, as well as to look into a variety of subjects and issues of mutual importance.