The Rif is Not a Commodity!
By Najiba Jalal
It is neither fair nor intellectually honest for certain voices to continue exploiting events in the Rif to portray the state as the sole party responsible for everything that has occurred. Recent history proves that the current state of this issue is an inevitable result of turning legitimate social demands, due to incitement, into dangerous slips and criminal acts, which have nothing to do with peaceful protest.
Here, politicians and local elites failed to play their role, and mediation was absent, leaving the arena open for those seeking to ignite flames rather than extinguish them.
From the outset, the state relied on field development through the “Mediterranean Lighthouse” projects; however, it faced a youth pushed by others to escalate, lured by extreme slogans that serve only narrow agendas. The result: social demands became legal issues, and years of suffering could have been avoided had politicians fulfilled their natural role.
The clearest evidence of the state’s desire to heal the wound is allowing Nasser Zefzafi to leave his prison to attend his father’s funeral. Prior to that, he was permitted to visit his mother before a surgical operation, and he had also visited his father when his illness intensified, in clear humanitarian and national gestures. Ironically, Zefzafi today sends messages subtly targeting those who exploited him in the past, reaffirming that the homeland is not a local issue to be manipulated; it encompasses every inch of the country.
When Zefzafi said, “Nothing supersedes the interest of the homeland,” it was a message to all Moroccan youth: do not fall into the trap of incitement, nor allow social gaps to be exploited for narrow gains. His message was a clear rejection of turning the youth of the Rif into fuel for agendas unrelated to the interests of the people or the dignity of the citizen.
Zefzafi’s discourse marked a turning point and a decisive blow to those who commodified the cause by using his name. He declared unequivocally that using his name to upend the balance against the homeland is no longer permissible, and that belonging to the homeland is the highest principle, while all else is but exposed maneuvers.
As for those attempting today to solely attach the tragedy to the state, they ignore the essential question: where were the parties and local elites? Where were the natural mediators who should have transformed demands into solutions? They neglected their roles and left the youth easy prey for incitement, then withdrew when the situation exploded. This is what needs to be discussed today, not the distortion of facts.
The truth is clear: the state bore the responsibility of maintaining public security, while politicians failed to take on the responsibility of guidance. Today, what is required is not to reiterate discussions on “security approaches,” but to confront oneself, hold accountable those who incited the youth, and activate a genuine reconciliation based on development and political mediation, rather than opportunistically exploiting crises.
Morocco continues on its developmental path, and the Rif is part of it. Zefzafi himself—though belatedly—has realized that the homeland cannot be reduced to a region or a slogan, but is a single home that we must all protect from the mischief of inciters and the betrayal of incompetent elites.
