(Rabat) The Moroccan women’s basketball team hosted its Israeli counterpart on Wednesday during a friendly match, a first which is part of the sports cooperation implemented since the diplomatic normalization between Morocco and Israel at the end of 2020. .
Posted at 5:48 p.m.
This is the first time – in basketball – that an Israeli national team has faced an Arab team in their country, according to the website of the Israel Basketball Federation (IBBA). The Israeli rugby players had beaten the Emirati XV in March 2021 in Dubai.
The Moroccans beat the Israelis after a tight match (62-58), disputed in a gymnasium in Salé, near Rabat, in front of around 200 people, including many young basketball players, at the invitation of the Moroccan Federation, noted an AFP journalist.
This exhibition match was organized on the sidelines of a framework cooperation agreement signed Tuesday in Rabat, in the presence of the president of the International Basketball Federation Hamane Niang, between the Royal Moroccan Basketball Federation (FRMBB) and the IBBA in order to develop sports exchanges, according to a press release.
In particular, it provides for the organization of tournaments and friendly matches at all levels and the participation of Moroccan coaches in advanced training courses in Israel.
“We are here for sport and only for sport. our goal is to improve the level of our basketball. There will be other matches in other categories,” FRMBB president Moustapha Aourach told AFP.
“It’s not a secret, there are many sensitive points in relations with Arab nations but we are not politicians, we are here to play basketball,” added his Israeli counterpart Amiram Halevi.
But this partnership described as “historic” also, and above all, comes under “sports diplomacy” after the normalization of bilateral relations between the two countries.
It is in line with “the spirit of the ‘Abraham Accords’ and is in line with the desire of the two countries to build the future within the framework of multidimensional cooperation”, underlined the Moroccan Minister of Education. and Sports, Chakib Benmoussa, quoted by the Moroccan press agency MAP.
Israel and Morocco restored diplomatic relations in December 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, a process of normalization between the Jewish state and several Arab countries, supported by the former US administration of Donald Trump.
Since then, the rapprochement between the Cherifian kingdom and the Jewish state has continued at a steady pace, with visits and the signing of partnerships in the technological, security, military, economic and cultural fields.
Wednesday’s match went off without incident or protest. If the Palestinian cause continues to gather the sympathy of the Moroccan population, the normalization of relations with Israel has hardly raised any massive protests.