Sunday, August 21, 2005

Controversy in Casablanca

This bizarre article (in French) by Fahd Yata in La Nouvelle Tribune castigates the self-perpetuating leadership of the Jewish community of Casablanca for not having held elections for 20 years. (" The Council of the Jewish Community in our town is a bit like the Moroccan Tennis Federation," said one wag.)

Women have not been allowed to exercise their voting rights yet. The self-appointed Serge Berdugo and Boris Toledano argue that it is the Moroccan authorities themselves who have been opposing womens' voting rights and that talks on this issue having been going on with the Interior Ministry since 1997.

" At a time when the Moroccan press has been reporting the progressive normalisation of relations between Israel and the Palestinians and has even interviewed the Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the stance of the Casablanca Jewish Community appears singularly anachronistic.(...), Fahd Yata writes.

"Two-thousand year-old Moroccan Judaism is an essential part of our national heritage and Moroccan identity. The community is not as big as it once was, but two million Jews are proud of their Moroccan origins and follow carefully what goes on in their native land. (...) The winds of change blowing in Morocco for the last five years should touch the Jews of Casablanca too."

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