by Rami Ayyub
JERUSALEM, Aug.11 (Reuters) – Israeli Foreign Minister Yari Lapid flew to Morocco on Wednesday in what is his first official visit to the country since the two states agreed to renew diplomatic ties in last december.
At the head of a ministerial delegation, Yari Lapid will spend two days in Morocco. He is expected to inaugurate Israel’s diplomatic mission in Rabat and meet with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita.
He is also expected to travel to Casablanca to visit Temple Beth-El, the minister’s office said.
“This historic visit is part of the continuity of the friendship, the long history and the traditions that the Jewish community of Morocco maintains with the large community of Israelis of Moroccan origin,” said Yari Lapid.
Until Israel’s founding in 1948, Morocco was home to one of the region’s largest Jewish communities. An estimated 250,000 of them left Morocco for Israel between 1948 and 1964.
Morocco currently has nearly 3,000 Jews, and hundreds of thousands of Israelis claim Moroccan origins.
Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan normalized relations with Israel last year under deals reached under the aegis of the administration of former US President Donald Trump, angering Palestinians who have long relied on the support of Arab states.
The visit of the Israeli Foreign Minister to Morocco comes just five weeks after his trip to the United Arab Emirates, the first official visit by a member of the Hebrew government to the Gulf country.
(Report Rami Ayyub, with the contribution of Ahmed Eljechtimi in Rabat, French version Lucinda Langlands-Perry, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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