Israel Thanks Morocco on The Anniversary of Mohammed V’s Rescue of Millions of Jews From the Nazis

Israel expressed its high appreciation to the late Moroccan monarch Mohammed V, and thanked him for his stances in support of the Jews during the Second World War.

The Hebrew i24 channel quoted the head of the Israeli liaison office to Morocco, David Guverin, as saying: “We commemorate the six million Jews who died because of the Nazi Holocaust. This is an opportunity to thank the late King of Morocco Mohammed V for refusing to hand the Jews of Morocco to the pro-Nazy Vichy Regime despite the concrete pressures exerted on him and the Jews at the time”. The diplomat stressed on this matter that “we must remember it and not forget it”.

Mohammed V (who led Morocco as a sultan during two periods between 1927 and 1953 and 1955-1957 and as king in 1957-1961) successfully countered the attempts of the pro-Nazi Vichy regime to force Rabat to adopt anti-Jewish laws and deport 250,000 Moroccan Jews to Nazi extermination camps.

The late king then famously said, “I am not the king of Muslims only, but also of all Moroccans”