Morocco applies “same methods as Israel” in Western Sahara

WASHINGTON – Human Rights Watch (HRW) Executive Director Kenneth Roth said Morocco is applying the “same methods” used by the Israeli occupier against the Palestinians in an attempt to “consolidate” its occupation of Western Sahara.

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Kenneth Roth underlined on Thursday on his Twitter account that “the treatment reserved” by Morocco for the Saharawi people in the occupied territories of Western Sahara is “in a way the same treatment reserved by Israel for the Palestinians”.

He explained that “over the years, Morocco has used subsidies and tax exemptions to convince thousands of its inhabitants to settle” in occupied Sahrawi towns in an attempt to “consolidate its control”.

Returning to the announcement made on December 10 by outgoing US President Donald Trump on his recognition of alleged Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, in return for normalization between the Moroccan regime and the Zionist entity, Kenneth Roth reiterated that this decision “does not change the status of Western Sahara as a territory under colonialism”.

Read also: The recent AU resolution on Western Sahara adopted as an official UN document

Recently, HRW strongly denounced the repression of Saharawi militants by the Moroccan occupation forces in the occupied Saharawi towns, noting the “brutal and illegal nature of the methods of the Moroccan regime”.

The NGO denounced, in a press release, the repression by the Moroccan authorities of all manifestations of support for Saharawi self-determination, subjecting Saharawi activists to “violence, in the street or in police custody, imprison them, condemn the end of trials marred by irregularities or acts of torture, hinder their freedom of movement, and follow them openly “.

HRW, headquartered in Washington, had further underlined “that these practices were again reported following the Moroccan aggression against peaceful Sahrawi demonstrators on November 13 in El Guerguerat (southwest of Western Sahara).

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